Ginny Weasley and the longest year
by Masks and Teapots
Summary: What happened to Ginny Weasley in Hogwarts while the trio were off chasing Horcruxes.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Platform Nine and Three Quarters looked very much the same as it did every year. Students who hadn't seen each other over the summer waved, smiled, hugged. Parents were checking that no school books, uniforms or pets had been forgotten. The Hogwarts Express was there as usual, bright red, and trunks were being loaded on it, as if nothing had changed in the past year.

But everything _had_ changed. You couldn't see it, but you could definitively hear it. All conversations were whispered. The quiet sobs of first years weren't those of anticipated homesickness, they were of fear. The rare laughs that were heard were quickly silenced with a severe look.

An informed observer would also notice a difference in students – some that were only too visible because of the gaping hole their absence created. No Muggle-borns had come to board the train this year – that would have been nothing short of suicide on their part. It turned out that the single thing more annoying than Dennis Creevey's overexcited voice was its absence – because it meant that he had gone in hiding, alongside his older brother. Other faces were missing – Muggle-borns who had in the best case run for their lives, and in the worst case been captured by the Ministry.

But the largest hole was left by three students – one having the little-envied title of "Undesirable Number One", the second being Muggle-born would never have dared set a foot in Hogwarts, and the third was officially staying home due to Spattergroit.

As Ginny Weasley looked at the spot besides her where those three should have been standing, she felt a sudden urge to shrink her trunk, shove it in her pocket and run to find them. There were, after all, only a limited amount of places where they could be. The Death Eaters hadn't found them, but they didn't know the trio like she did. In fact, by her estimates, there was not a single person in the wizarding world who knew those three better than she did – except maybe the trio themselves.

She fought the urge. They had their thing to do, and as much as it pained her, she wasn't needed in that mission. _Her_ mission required her presence in Hogwarts – so to Hogwarts she would go.

"Alright there, Gin?"

Her eldest brother Bill was standing behind her, not quite hiding how worried he was. His baby sister was off on her own to a place that was now run by Death Eaters, and there was little secret where her family's allegiance lay. Over there, on her own, she was one of the members of the family the most at risk. There had been a debate a few nights ago around the dinner table at the Burrow, weighing the risks of her attending Hogwarts against those of her not going. Seeing as already one Weasley was missing, it was decided that the last thing they needed was more scrutiny, so Ginny had dutifully packed her trunk. It was that same night she had decided on her new mission.

"I've been better, but then again, I've been worse," she answered with a smile and more bravado than she felt. "And either way, I've got to go, don't I?"

Molly Weasley, looking even more worried than her oldest son, straightened her tie and kissed both her cheeks.

"I'm sorry we couldn't have more people to see you off but... Well, you know."

Indeed, Ginny knew. Her entire family, minus Percy-the-Prat, was fighting one way or another, which meant very few of them were available to send her off to school. She was glad that at least her mother and Bill had made it.

"Thanks, Bill," she said after he loaded her trunk in the luggage compartment. "I guess I'd better go get myself a compartment before the mini-Death Eater claim them all."

"Take care of yourself, sis," Bill answered, hugging her. "We all know you're going straight to the thick of it, but I know you're stronger than everyone thinks. Give them hell."

"Bill!" scolded their mother. "Don't say things like that! Ginny, keep your head low. Snape will have enough reasons to single you out without adding any."

She embraced her daughter one last time with teary eyes, and then let her go.

"Be safe. Just stay safe."

"Don't worry about me, Mum. I'll be careful. I love you."

Ginny turned and boarded the train, waving to them one last time before going in search of a compartment. As the train started moving, she passed thee one she was looking for. As promised, the two others were waiting for her. She smiled as she opened the door.

"Hi Neville, hi Luna! Are you ready for this year?"

The other two answered with bright smiles that didn't quite hide the shadows everyone seemed to have on their faces these days.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Neville answered. "I've been mentally preparing myself for the moment I'll see Snape sitting in Dumbledore's chair. I almost have the gag reflex under control."

"I expect this year is not going to be as nice at all," said Luna. "A reader wrote to Daddy last week after he heard a rumour we'd be expected to learn to curse other students."

Ginny mentally filed this information under the category _I-really-hope-that's-just-a-Quibbler-rumour_.

"Well, I know for sure I'll refuse to curse anyone if a Death Eater asks me to. Though I might make an exception for Malfoy."

Neville smiled in approval.

"But seriously, what are we going to do?" he asked. "We're not going to lie low and take whatever they throw at us, are we?"

"Of course not," Ginny answered with confidence. "First, though, we need to see what exactly it is that they throw at us. We all know Snape was already nasty when Dumbledore was there to restrain him. But now..."

The mention of Dumbledore's death darkened the already sombre mood in their compartment. Ginny was still unable to think about it without feeling a need to swallow back some tears – the same feeling she had whenever she allowed herself to think about Harry for too long. She mentally shook herself. Tearing up and wallowing would not help anyone.

"I know only one thing for certain," she continued. "We're going to have to help the younger students. Those who were too young to be in the DA, especially the first and second years – they are going to be in over their heads. The three of us, we know what a battle looks like. The older students who were in the DA don't, but at least they know how to take care of themselves. But the youngest will need someone to look after them. I'm sure most of the teachers will do what they can, but we all know that they can't see everywhere."

Neville looked thoughtful.

"I thought as much Ginny, but..." He hesitated.

"But what Neville? You don't expect Death Eaters are going too be nicer to kids, do you?"

"Of course not, Ginny, I'm not that naïve. I'm just not sure that younger kids will let us look after them."

Ginny stared. "What?"

"I think Neville is saying that because he's not popular at all, no one will want to be seen as protected by him, you see?" Luna said. "I think I will have the same problem. People don't like talking to me. Well, you two do, but no one else does."

Ginny looked at them, suddenly speechless. Her mission, her plan had seemed clear enough when she had thought it over in her bedroom at the Burrow.

It had started with the simple question: What Would Harry Do? The answer was obvious enough: the boy she loved, having the largest hero complex the world had ever seen, would take it upon himself to protect everyone who was defenceless. Ginny wasn't quite conceited enough to think she could do it on her own – Harry, after all, never actually did anything on his own, no matter what the rest of the world liked to think. She knew having his two best friends by his side was what made him so good.

It was completely natural for her to think of Neville and Luna to help, then. More than anyone else in the school, they had proved times over that they would stand with Harry even in the worst cases and that they could stand the heat of a battle. It hadn't even occurred to her that so few people knew about that, and might not follow them like they followed Harry.

"You won't have the same problem as us, though," Luna continued. "People really like you, you know. You're very popular."

Ginny blushed. "That was last year. I expect under the new regime, I'm not exactly the kind of person most people would want to associate with. Not only am I a complete blood traitor, I'm also the Undesirable Number One's ex-girlfriend. I'm surprised I haven't been arrested on these grounds only."

"Ex-girlfriend?" Neville interrupted, looking surprised.

"Yes," Ginny answered, feeling her throat tighten again. "I got dumped by the stupid noble idiot. He thinks I'd be in danger if people knew we're close or something."

"I don't think he thinks he dumped you," Luna answered. "He never stopped looking at you at your brother's wedding."

"Really?" Ginny felt ridiculously pleased at this information. She had spent the entire wedding doing her best not to look at Harry, to avoid more tearing-up-and-wallowing.

"Really," Luna said with a knowing smile.

Ginny blushed.

"Oh, well. There's no point in dwelling over this. I'm unlikely to catch his eye anytime soon again. Back to my point: I still think we should defend the young students. If others see us do it, they'll follow our lead. I'm sure we'll have a difficult year, but we can handle ourselves. I'm really worried about the first years, though."

Ginny knew first hand just how bad things could get for a first year student left on her own as a tool in Voldemort's hand. After the disaster her entire first year had been, she had promised herself two things. First, she would never let herself be weak like this again, and second, she'd look out for others who looked like they needed a friend. This had led to her unlikely friendships with Luna and Neville. What she had done that year was never mentioned between the three of them – despite what everyone thought, Luna could actually be tactful when it was really needed, and Neville was much more sensible than most people gave him credit for.

"So that's it then," Neville declared. "Mostly, we watch out for the first and second years. Once we know what Snape has in store for us, we decide further."

"One more thing, though," Ginny added. "We tell everyone who was in the DA that we still think can be trusted to keep their coins handy. I think it's not a matter of _if_, but a matter of _when_ we'll need to call for help. Luna, can you pass the word around the Ravenclaw common room? Neville and I will do Gryffindor, and we'll figure out something to let Hufflepuff know."

It felt at the same time wonderful and scary to be making those decisions. Ginny suddenly felt much older than her 16 years, and wondered for a fleeting moment if that was what Harry felt like most of the time.

Desperately looking for something lighter to talk about, she took out her chess set, and started playing with Neville. Luna opened the _Quibbler_. As the train took them further on their journey North, for a moment, Ginny felt as thought the world was still normal – not the kind of place where 16 year-old girls made plans to protect 11 year-old children from potential torture.

**Author Note: This is the first fanfiction I write in years – I tend to read a lot of what everyone else writes, and I've been looking for a while for a story showing what happened to Ginny during the last book. Since I couldn't find one I liked, I figured I should write one!**

**I would really appreciate constructive criticism, as I'm just starting writing for fun again, and I really want to improve my style. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I am but a humble fan playing with JK Rowling's Universe. I do not, in fact, own Harry Potter, and I wish Warner Bros would stop rubbing it in.**

**Chapter 2**

No matter how hard she tried to stay focused on positive thoughts, Ginny couldn't help but feel grim. Everywhere she turned, there seemed to be reasons to be depressed. Obviously, the Dementors she could see floating in the distance couldn't be helping. However, as she stopped out of the train, it was the sight of Hagrid quietly directing the first years towards the boats, instead of happily waving to his favourite students that got to her. She'd become accustomed to him welcoming Ron, Hermione and Harry with special cheers every year. This time, he only had a small wave for her and a smile that didn't reach his eyes at all.

As she walked alongside Neville and Luna towards the carriage, she stopped suddenly, frozen. They were no longer horseless as she had been used to seeing them. She swallowed quietly as she took her first look at the Thestrals. Even knowing, from what Harry and Luna had told her and from having ridden one to London, that they were friendly, she felt uneasy as she walked towards them.

"Get a grip on yourself, Ginevra," she told herself. "They always been here, you just couldn't see them before. On the whole, you're much safer now that you can actually see where they are."

She followed Neville who was climbing in a carriage that had already been claimed by Seamus Finnigan. Luna climbed after her, and they were soon joined by Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil.

"Will you look at us," Seamus declared, pointing at himself, Neville, Lavender and Parvati. "Gryffindor class of 1998 has now officially shrunk by half. If it's anything to go by for the rest of the school, it's going to get a bit lonely in class this year."

"I'm not so sure," Parvati replied. "There's actually going to be new students this year, some wizards who weren't attending Hogwarts before and are now forced by the Ministry to show up."

"Are there really that many of them, though?" Ginny asked. "I mean, most wizards and witches attend Hogwarts, don't they?"

"There are actually a few that don't – some parents prefer to send their kids to Muggle school and teach them magic at home. It's common for Half-Bloods, or for people who prefer to stay a bit out of the wizarding world."

"I can't imagine they'd be too pleased with the new regime, either way," Seamus said. "They're not going to see Hogwarts at its best this year, are they? And how do they know which houses they'll be put in, anyway? Are they going to be sorted like the first years?"

"We'd better hope for them that's what happens," Lavender replied. "I wouldn't put it past Snape to send them all in Slytherin, and I have a feeling Half-Bloods and kids raised the Muggle way wouldn't last long in there."

"Well, they'd be bloody hypocrites to go after anyone for being Half-Blood, wouldn't they," Ginny put in. "After all, both Snape and Riddle are Half-Bloods themselves."

"Riddle?" Seamus asked. "Who is that?"

"That's You-Know-Who – his actual name," she answered. "Harry drilled in my head not to call him You-Know-Who though – but since the _other name_ has been Tabooed – I'll go for his original name."

"Weird name," Lavender said with a small shiver. "Anyway, since when has being a hypocrite ever stopped a Slytherin from picking on anyone?"

"Never, as we all know," Seamus put in. "I guess I'll find out soon enough if Half-Bloods are going to be treated any different. You lot are going to be fine, but I reckon I'll be in the spotlight fairly early."

"You think we'll be fine? Really?" Neville said with a sad smile. "I'd say the six of us in this carriage are going to be on Snape's hit list this year – if he has one of these. Even if we're not as close to him as Ron and Hermione, it's no secret that the four of us in his year are friends with Harry. Everyone in the school has seen Ginny snogging Harry last year, and Luna's father has been openly criticising the Ministry in his paper since it fell. And Snape has never really needed an excuse to hate me..."

Lavender and Parvati looked fairly impressed at Neville's speech. Seamus looked grim – Ginny realised that she'd _never_ seen Seamus Finnigan look grim before. He was one of those persons like Fred or George who could be constantly relied on to look ready to crack a joke. She filed that under another thing that depressed her.

"So what are we going to do about it then?" Seamus asked, looking very serious.

Ginny was reminded of the conversation she'd had with Neville and Luna earlier in the train. She was wondering how much of her mission she should let the other three Gryffindors know about, when she realised that the carriages had stopped. They'd arrived at the castle. Gazing out the window, she saw Pansy Parkinson looking at their small group, very interested.

"Let's talk later, in the tower," she muttered to Seamus, Parvati and Lavender. They followed her gaze, and seeing Pansy, seemed to agree that delaying conversation was the best course of action.

* * *

><p>Parvati was right, there were indeed new faces in the crowd – students much too old to be in their first year who were admiring the castle with the awed look that everyone had when they first saw Hogwarts. Ginny found her first reason to be cheerful as she looked up at her school. No matter how many Dementors floated around, no matter that the Headmaster was now a Death Eater, no matter that the people she loved most in the world were missing from it – nothing could take away the incredible beauty of Hogwarts castle.<p>

Looking further up, she noticed the brightest star in the sky, in Canis Major. She smiled. The presence of Sirius, the dog star, was another thing they couldn't take from her. She'd started looking at it every night after Bill and Fleur's wedding, as her own re-assurance that someone was watching over Harry, Ron and Hermione while she couldn't. She winked at the star, and silently cursed Bellatrix Lestrange. She was absolutely sure that if Sirius was still alive, he'd be right next to Harry, helping and guiding him on whatever his mission was.

Reminding herself not to dwell on _if-only-s_, Ginny walked in the Great Hall. Most of the students walked to their tables, but a small group was staying back – the new students. They were clearly wondering what to do with themselves, until Professor Sprout walked towards them and invited them to join the first years in the entrance hall.

"They're going to get sorted with the first years," Luna said. "At least we won't have to worry about them all ending up in Slytherin."

Ginny gave her a quick squeeze before she left their small group for the Ravenclaw table. She took a look at the staff table, and felt all colour drop from her face.

"Seamus, hide me!"

The Irish boy looked surprised, but took it in a stride and stepped in front of her.

"What exactly am I hiding you from, Miss Weasley?"

"That fat man, at the table, with black hair – that's Amycus Carrow. I duelled him last year. I don't think he's going to like me much..."

"Shit, Ginny. You Weasleys really do like to get on the bad side of Death Eaters, don't you?" Seamus muttered. "You can hide behind me tonight, but if he's in the staff, he's bound to see you sometime this year."

"Well, let's delay that for as long as possible, I'll deal with it soon enough. Is there anyone else new at the staff table?"

"There's a woman, ugly thing. She looks a bit like him," Lavender answered.

Ginny risked a glance.

"I think that's his sister, Alecto. Tonks told me about her."

"Who's Tonks?" Parvati asked.

"She's an Auror – well, she was. She's on the run from the ministry now, she's done too many things to antagonise the current regime. She's awesome, really. And she's been helping me prepare for this year over the summer. Made sure I would know something about the Death Eaters we might run into."

Neville looked impressed.

"You're going to have to tell us about that!"

"Later," Ginny muttered, as Professor McGonagall started bringing the first years forward. Eyes turned to the Sorting Hat, waiting for its usual annual song.

The Hat remained silent.

McGonagall shifted, looking unsure of herself.

The Hat remained silent.

Whispers started around the student tables.

McGonagall took out her parchment and called.

"Abbott, Andrew!"

A small boy who looked a lot like Hannah stepped forward, trembling. Ginny felt a pang of sympathy for him. The Sorting was scary under normal circumstances already. She couldn't imagine how he was feeling.

"Gryffindor!" the Hat yelled, after barely two seconds on the boy's head. Andrew ran off towards the table after McGonagall took the Hat back. Neville and Seamus clapped hard and immediately made space for him.

The ceremony went on, going through the first years at the beginning, and once they were all Sorted, McGonagall beckoned the older new students forward. As she went through the roll once again, Ginny started to notice something. Looking around the Gryffindor table, and then glancing at the others, she saw she wasn't the only one who had noticed the strange event. By the time Finn Walsh had been sorted in Ravenclaw, the whispering was overtaking the Great Hall.

Not a single new student, first year or older, had been Sorted in Slytherin.

Snape looked very much like Fred had when their mother had announced Christmas had been cancelled because of a mean prank he'd pulled. His lips were so thin they might as well not be there. He was looking everywhere except for the Slytherin table. The new Headmaster stood up slowly.

"Hogwarts is this year going to start taking your education seriously," he started. McGonagall, Sprout and Flitwick were watching him in a way that made Ginny wish that looks could kill. "We have two new members of staff. Professor Alecto Carrow will be teaching Muggle Studies. Professorr Amycus Carrow will be teaching the noble topic of Dark Arts. Both these classes are now mandatory for all students in all years."

Here, even Snape's dark looks could not keep the whispers away.

"Did he just say...?"

"I can't believe..."

"No way in hell!"

"Silence!" Snape's loud voice was more effective than a Silencing spell.

"The Professors Carrows have also been charged with maintaining discipline in the school this year. They will be helped in this task by Mr. Filch. There will be no tolerance for foolish and childish pranks in this castle as long as I am Headmaster. I do hope I make myself very clear."

He sat back down and snapped his fingers. Food appeared on the tables. In complete silence at first, then whispering, then talking quietly, and then normally, the students started to eat.

"Not a single new Slytherin, can you believe that?" Lavender said, beaming.

"The Sorting Hat does have its ways of making point, doesn't it," Neville answered.

"Has that ever happened before?" little Andrew Abbott asked, seeming to scarcely believe his luck at having been invited to sit by the older students.

"Not that I know of," Ginny replied. "Even at the beginning of the school, when Godric Gryffindor and Salazar Slytherin had their big fall-out, it still sent students in Slytherin."

"Well, this sounds like a really nice practical joke against the snakes," Seamus said with a smirk. "But it didn't sing! That was really disturbing!"

"What do you mean, it didn't sing? Does it sing normally?" one of the new students asked.

"It normally makes a new song every year," Neville answered. "Usually it's just for fun, but in recent years, it's been giving warnings about the war. And now... I guess it figured we'd be warned enough. Silence is a stronger statement I guess."

Dessert had appeared on the table – the treacle tart reminded Ginny of Harry, and she wondered for a moment if she was destined to feel a pang in her stomach every time she thought of him for the rest of her life. She saw Amycus Carrow rise from the staff table in the distance and nudged Neville on the other side of the table.

"I'm quite tired, I think it's time for bed," she said quickly, pointing discreetly at Carrow.

"Right, good idea Gin, let's go. Anyone know the password for the tower?"

"The password is Albus, Mr Longtbottom." Ginny turned and smiled at Professor McGonagall. "And I would recommend for you and Miss Weasley to stay out of Professor Carrow's way as long as you can manage. Though it seems you had understood that on your own," she said with a curt smile.

They both nodded and stood. Next to them, several Gryffindor stood as well and gathered around them. They seemed to have taken McGonagall's words as an order to shield them. Over at the Ravenclaw table, she saw Michael Corner and Terry Boot stand, acting as Luna's bodyguards.

Ginny smirked at Neville.

"What was that you said in the train about not being popular?"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Ginny claimed the chair by the fire the moment she came in the common room. It was deliciously familiar, and if she just closed her eyes, she could imagine Harry walking towards it, Ron and Hermione arguing next to him. He'd lift her off her spot, settle in it and promptly put her on his lap. He'd start doing that thing with her hair – playing with it, absentmindedly, while talking with his friends, but turning to her and smiling every so often, to let her know that he had not, in fact, forgotten she was there, and she was his girlfriend.

She smiled as she recollected moments by the lake when he had his hand in much more than her hair. The memories of these events, which would most likely give her brothers heart attacks if they knew about them, almost caused her to run upstairs in her dormitory and try to reminisce under the shower.

If she closed her eyes just a bit stronger, she believed she could actually remember the exact feel of his lips on hers, especially that one last kiss they had in her bedroom on hiss birthday. If her idiot of a brother hadn't interrupted, she was quite certain she'd have been able to finish her plan and feel Harry's hands on even newer places on her body.

The day he came back – because he would come back, she could not for a second think that he wouldn't come back from whatever his mission was – she'd drag him to this very chair by the fire and claim her spot on his lap. Ginny was certain that she could go through anything that would be thrown at her for the rest of the war, whether it lasted a month or ten years, as long as she could sit on Harry's lap and have him play with her hair just once again.

She was pulled out of her daydream when someone loudly cleared their throat next to her.

She tried not to groan as her roommate Heather Smethley stood in front of her. She'd never really got along with the other two girls in her dormitory. There were only three of them in there, mostly due to the fact that they had been born at the peak of the war, and making babies was the farthest thing from everyone's mind back then – unless you were Molly Weasley, in which case war was just cause for having more children. The other girl from her dormitory, Sandra, was missing this year – another Muggleborn who, Ginny hoped, had made a run for it. Heather was a particularly nasty girl who had never shown any interest in talking with Ginny until she became Harry Potter's girlfriend. Hermione used to complain a lot about Parvati and Lavender – Lavender a lot more the past year, actually – but at least they weren't downright nasty, and had their hearts in the right place. Ginny was fairly sure if Heather had been in the DA, they would have been betrayed by someone else than Marietta Edgecombe, and much earlier.

"What can I do for you, Heather?" she asked with the fakest smile she could come up with.

Heather smiled back, looking absolutely genuine.

"So, what's new? What have you been up to this summer? Anything exciting?"

Ginny starred at her. Either the girl was even stupider, or this was the most obvious ploy in history too get gossip out of her. She decided not to take the bait.

"Oh well, you know, this and that. My brother got married, but that's not really interesting. It was a really quiet event, not much happened."

"Of course," she answered with a finality that made it clear she didn't believe that for a second. "You'd have to say that," she continued in a whisper, and then winked.

Ginny was getting more dumbfounded by the second. Was this girl – the same person who'd made fun of her for a full month in first year after she sent that dreadful Valentine to Harry – actually trying to _bond_ with her?

"Yes, I would have to say that, because it's the _truth_," she answered, lying through her teeth. The cover story had been repeated by the entire family since the disastrous end of the wedding, and Ginny was nothing if not an excellent liar.

Heather smiled again and looked around the common room.

"Right. You never know who could be listening here. We can talk more quietly in our dorm!" She then walked off, going up the girls' stairs. Ginny had never wanted so little to go to bed.

Looking around the common room, she saw several people quickly looking away. From across the room, she saw the two remaining seventh year boys starring at her. Seamus winked and Neville smiled, before both making their way upstairs.

"Oh well, might as well go and hide behind the curtains," she thought. She'd have to put some privacy spells around her part of the dorm, she realised. Heather's sudden interest was entirely too suspicious. She knew Gryffindors weren't known for subtlety, but this was downright stupid. She waved to Parvati and Lavender as she passed the open door of their dorm. The two girls were obviously in denial, as they were looking everywhere but at Hermione's empty bed.

As she lay down on her bed, having firmly shut the curtains around her right in Heather's face, she thought she hadn't felt this lonely since her first year. She was terrified, though she wouldn't admit that to anyone. Fear usually only made her stronger, and made her fight harder. But in the quiet evening of her first night at Hogwarts, there was nothing to fight – nothing yet, at least. Tonks and Bill had prepared her, behind her mother's back, and had warned her that with Death Eaters in the school, she should expect the worse. The anticipation of just what "the worse" was made everything much harder and scarier. She felt a pang of jealousy for Lavender and Parvati – even for Seamus and Neville who probably were feeling horrible, looking at a total of three empty beds – at least they had someone to confide him. Her closest friend was in her Ravenclaw dormitory, locked with people who didn't appreciate her nearly as much as they should. She would have loved to be able to talk with Bill or Tonks, but there was no way she could be open enough in letters about all that she had on her mind. She had to assume mail would be watched, especially hers.

She tossed and turned in her bed for almost two hours, unable to find sleep, before she made her decision. She put on a robe, and quietly slipped out of bed, making sure not to wake Heather up.

* * *

><p>The common room was empty, so no one saw her go up the stairs to the boys' dormitories. She thought she'd have to be very quiet not to wake up the two boys, but the lights were still on, and Neville and Seamus turned straight to her as she came in.<p>

"Sorry, I couldn't sleep," she apologised. "Can I stay here tonight?"

"Of course you can," Neville said sweetly. She walked straight to what used to be Harry's bed. "I was telling Seamus about that plan of yours to protect the first years. He reckons it's a good idea."

"But I think we should do more," the Irish boy continued. "I mean, we're not going to let a bunch of Death Eaters boss us around without reacting, are we?"

"We first need to see what the bossing around entails, Seamus," she replied. "I don't mind taking risks to accomplish things, but we're not going to risk our skins just for the pleasure of just once telling a Death Eater what we think."

"That's exactly what Harry would do, though," Seamus answered.

"Actually, that's exactly the opposite of what Harry is doing right now," Neville contradicted. "Whatever he's doing with Ron and Hermione, he's clearly not advertising it. If he was telling Death Eaters what he thinks to their faces, we'd be hearing about it in the Daily Prophet, if only because they'd announce they're closer to catching him."

Seamus looked at Ginny, an eyebrow raised.

"No, I don't know what they're doing," she answered his silent question, slightly exasperated. "And I also wish everyone would stop asking me this. I'm starting to realise why they wouldn't tell me anything, I'm expecting Veritaserum in my pumpkin juice any morning now."

"But do you know if there's anything we can do to help them? Did they leave any hints?" Neville asked.

"Neville, have you met Harry? If he doesn't want anyone to know something, he won't let anything through," Seamus pointed out. "I still think we need to do more than just helping firsties," he added, getting back on topic.

"Shay, for all we know, helping firsties is already going to be more than we can handle. I'm rather sure these Carrows will make Umbridge look like a teddy bear – not because she was less evil, but because they won't care if students complain to parents. I mean, what will the parents be able to do anyway?" Neville wondered. "They can't take us out of school, they won't be able to get the Carrows or Snape kicked out. If they've been put in charge of discipline, it's to make everyone even more afraid of them. We'll be sticking it to You-Know-Who by making sure the firsties know not to be afraid, and by showing the others that we can stand up to them."

Seamus looked impressed.

"You know, Neville, you just sounded a lot like Harry," he said with a sad smile. Neville blushed. "Anyway. If that's what we're going to do, we need to organise." He went to his trunk and started digging. "Are these still going to work?" he asked.

He was holding his D.A. coin.

"Well, they were still working just a few months ago," Neville answered. "No reason they shouldn't anymore."

"But how do they work? Harry and Hermione are the only ones that ever activated them..."

"No idea," Ginny answered truthfully. "But we should be able to find someone else in this place who has brains besides Hermione. If you have classes with the Ravenclaws tomorrow, can you put them on the case?"

"Can we trust them?"

"I'm sure we can trust Michael and Terry," Neville said. "They might have joined the D.A. for Ginny's pretty eyes, but they stayed for the right reasons."

Ginny stuck her tongue out at him. "You're right. Michael might be a sore loser at Quidditch, but he's on the right side in this war. If you don't have classes with them tomorrow, though, I'll ask Luna."

"And what happens once we make the Protean charm work?" Seamus asked.

"We keep our fingers crossed that we don't actually need it. But if we do, we know how to contact anyone else from the D.A. in a heart beat. You never know when we might need someone from another house," Ginny answered sombrely.

She looked at the two boys. Seamus was probably the one boy in this class she knew the least, but the other four had always trusted him implicitly, with a small exception at the beginning of her fourth year. Neville she'd never wondered about – he'd been the only one of the five boys who had always been here for her, even more than Ron or Harry. She suddenly felt a bit less lost – and a lot sleepier.

As one, they close the curtains around their beds. Ginny wasn't sure if it was just wishful thinking, but she could smell Harry's lingering smell around her –grass on the Quidditch pitch, the dust of the invisibility cloak he never went anywhere without, and the lemon of his shampoo. She wondered once again if he was thinking of her at all, and then finally found sleep.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Many, many thanks to all my reviewers. It's been very nice to read them all – except for a certain Vicus, but at least the trolling was so ridiculous that it made me laugh.<strong>


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: this is one.**

**AN: Many thanks to my reviewers. Reviews make me all nice and happy inside!**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter 4<strong>

Ginny thanked her lucky stars for the existence of Neville Longbottom as the content of her school trunk were turned over in front of her.

"And that? What is that?"

"That would be my cauldron. For potion class," she answered the woman, barely managing to contain her eye roll. Alecto Carrow seemed stupid and crazy enough to singlehandedly confirm Tonks's theories about the consequences of generations of inbreeding in pureblood families.

"What about this?" she shouted, holding a small bottle.

"Ink. To write essays." She wondered for a second if the other woman knew how to write. She stifled a yawn.

It was barely six in the morning when the Death Eater had barged in the sixth year girls' dormitory. It was only thanks to Neville that she had been in her bed then. He had woken her up at five, sending her back to her own dormitory, in case anyone, in particular the nosy Heather, noticed she had spent the night somewhere else. She'd thought he was paranoid, but when Carrow had started emptying the contents of her trunk and interrogating her, she'd made a mental note to pay more attention to what he said.

"Right," Carrow answered, clearly disappointed. She looked like she'd finally finished her inspection. Ginny felt slightly insulted that the Death Eater had seriously thought she'd be stupid enough to have anything illegal in her trunk that wouldn't be transfigured or properly hidden.

The fact was, there were many illegal things in her trunk, but thanks to the combined efforts of Tonks, the twins and Fleur, it would be close to impossible for Carrow to find anything. It turned out her new sister in law was not only very good at glamour and concealment charms, she also knew many others for which the counter-charm had to be said in French. Fleur had been added next to Neville in her mental list of people she wouldn't underestimate again.

"If you are quite finished harassing my students, I would like to get some breakfast while the castle is still quiet. Miss Weasley and Miss Smethley might even have time to get some more sleep." Professor McGonagall had refused to leave the room while the interrogation took place. She'd answered Carrow's barely veiled threats with the glare that kept her classes perfectly silent. The Death Eater hadn't tried to push her luck.

"I've got my eye on you Weasley. Blood traitors like you won't have it easy anymore around here, mark my words."

Ginny stayed silent, thinking that with all the tongue-biting that she would need to do all year, she'd be lucky to still have a tongue by the following June.

"What was she looking for?" Heather asked avidly, as soon as the door closed behind Carrow and McGonagall.

"How should I know? She obviously didn't find it, whatever it was." Cutting the conversation short, she went in the bathroom. If Heather was going to try to talk to her all year, she'd need to come up with better escape routes than hiding in the bathroom. But, more urgently, she thought under the shower, she needed to find out of she'd been the only one targeted by Carrow's little search and interrogation act. If that was the case, she was in more danger than she thought.

She'd figured Harry's great act of nobility – dumping her – would at least ensure that she wouldn't be in the spotlight anymore than his other friends. Had she been wrong? Maybe Death Eaters still thought she knew more about Harry's whereabouts than she'd said in her interrogation after the wedding raid.

She needed to come up with a contingency plan if they did come after her. She wouldn't be much help to the first years or her family in Azkaban. She would have to start inspecting the secret passages the twins had told her about and see how many of them the Death Eaters knew about.

Brushing her hair, she prepared her battle plan for the day. While walking between classes, she'd try to take the long way whenever possible to discreetly check the passage. In classes, she would try to sit by Luna whenever possible to exchange the latest information and find out what the mood was in the Ravenclaw common room. At meal times, she would try and sit by younger students, and find out if any of them were bullied by their Death Eater teachers or older Slytherins. They were bound to be really annoyed not to have had anyone sorted in their House, and they did have a tendency to take these kinds of things out on easy targets.

Pleased with herself, and feeling better now that she knew she was going to act on something, Ginny almost ran out of the dormitory, passing right by Heather and walking down to the great hall for breakfast.

* * *

><p>Professor McGonagall was already there, and passed her a list of classes.<p>

"Please pick the classes you will take this year Miss Weasley. These will be the ones you take your NEWTs on. I have been told to remind you that Dark Arts and Muggle Studies are mandatory classes this year," McGonagall said, clearly not pleased to be told by anyone what she had to do.

Besides the two mandatory classes, Ginny signed up for Potions, Herbology, Care for Magical Creatures, Transfiguration and Astronomy. McGonagall took her list, then tapped a piece of parchment with her wand. Ginny's new schedule appeared automatically on it. She took it with a smile of thanks. McGonagall went on to take something out of her pocket.

"You won't take it personally, Miss Weasley, when I tell you I would rather be handing this badge to another student today; but in his absence, you are by far the best Quidditch in Gryffindor House."

Ginny silently took the Quidditch Captain badge from her Head of House.

"I trust that you will do you best to ensure certain former Slytherin teachers will have one less reason to gloat this year."

"We'll get the Cup, Professor, I promise," she answered with a wide smile.

She refused to feel guilty for taking the badge from Harry. Quidditch was her life more than it had been Harry's. She was still looking forward to the introduction to Gwenog Jones Professor Slughorn had promised her the previous year. If things ever went back to normal, she'd fly with the Harpies. That childhood dream was right up there with marrying the Boy-Who-Lived, and Ginny Weasley was damned if she'd let idiotic Death Eaters get in the way of her dreams.

* * *

><p>The Great Hall slowly started to fill up. Neville practical ran towards her when he came in. The rumour mill had been even faster than usual, and all of Gryffindor Tower knew that her trunk had been searched that morning. After she filled him in fully on what happened, and expressing her concerns, which he shared, over why she had been targeted, they agreed to pass the message around that if anyone did have anything illegal on their school trunks or room, they ought to hide things well.<p>

Their conversation was cut short when Heather appropriated herself the seat next to Neville and started to flirt outrageously with him. Neville was clearly not used to flirting, and looked completely confused at to what he was supposed to do. He looked at his friend quite desperately when Heather started batting her eyelashes. Ginny did a remarkable job of not cracking up and laugh in the face of his confusion.

"Neville, didn't you say you wanted a word with Lavander before class?"

"What? Oh, I mean, yes, you're right, Ginny. Lavender. I needed to talk to her. Now. Soon. Uhm. Let's go."

They practical ran out of the Hall together and Ginny finally cracked when they arrived on the stairs, out of view from everyone.

"Oh, your face Neville, it was priceless!" she said, short of breath from laughing.

"What was that? How does she even know my name? More importantly, what is _her_ name?"

"That was Heather. I think she's trying to find out where Harry is. She was very, very friendly to me last night. Though not quite as friendly as she was to you right now. Anyway, come on up, we'd better inform Lavender she's your alibi."

Lavender found the entire story quite hilarious and offered to pretend to be Neville's girlfriend in order to keep Heather off Neville's back. He blushed, and refused as politely as he could while stuttering madly.

* * *

><p>Laughing with Neville and Lavender had put Ginny in an excellent mood. It was, unfortunately, short-lived.<p>

As she made her way back from Potions class just before lunch, she noticed the mood in the corridors was subdued. She walked in the Great Hall, and was struck by how dark the atmosphere was. She could almost touch the tension in the air. No one she knew was at the Gryffindor table, so she just sat by a group of third years and introduced herself.

"Do you know what happened?" she asked bluntly. Now was not the time for flourishes.

"Yeah, it happened in our class," a boy answered. Ginny recognised him as one of the new students. He was positively green.

"Which class?"

"Muggle studies. Carrow, she was saying those things about Muggles... Horrible things, frankly disgusting. One of the students, a Hufflepuff, she told the entire class Carrow was lying, and..."

The boy turned even greener.

"She tortured her," finished another girl. "With Cruciatus. None of us could do anything to help."

Ginny paled. This was happening much faster than she'd anticipated.

"How long did it last?"

"About a minute," the boy answered. "Longest minute of my life."

"Where is she now? The girl?"

"In the Hufflepuff common room, her friends brought her there. Carrow forbade them from bringing her to the hospital wing."

Cursing quietly, Ginny thanked the third year students, and left the Great Hall. She went to pick up two things in her dormitory, and then made her way downstairs, towards to entrance of the Hufflepuff common room near the kitchens. The potion she needed was in her bag, disguised as a bottle of ink. Ironically, it was the same one Carrow had interrogated her about that very morning.

She waited a few minutes, before a group of Hufflepuffs arrived her way. She breathed a sigh of relief recognising Hannah Abbot and Ernie MacMillan. They both looked extremely worried.

"Ginny! What are you doing here?"

"I heard about what happened. I have a couple of things that can help her feel better. Can you let me in?"

Ernie and Hannah glanced at each other for just a second, before Hannah nodded.

"Alright."

The Hufflepuff common room looked strangely similar to its Gryffindor counterpart. A small group was gathered around a fluffy looking couch. A girl was lying there, white and shivering.

"Make way!" Ernie said loudly. Ginny went to kneel next to her.

"Hi. My name is Ginny," she said gently. "I'm here to help you feel better. What's your name?"

"Rose," the girl whispered weakly.

"That's a lovely name. I have a few things to make you feel better. This is a Sleeping Potion," she said, taking out the ink bottle and tapping it with her wand. "You need to get some sleep to have the effects of Cruciatus pass faster, but your body's reaction to Cruciatus is to stay awake. So with this potion, you'll sleep faster. Once you wake up, use this."

Ginny took out a box that looked blank, until she tapped it with her wand.

"This is a Patented Daydream Charm. If you use it after you wake up, it will make you feel happier, and you'll be able to avoid a few nightmares. And remember to eat lots of chocolate," she finished with a smile.

The girl nodded. "But what about my classes this afternoon?" Rose asked quietly.

"What do you have this afternoon?" Hannah asked.

"Herbology and Transfiguration," another third year student answered.

"If your classmates tell them what happened and where you are, Sprout and McGonagall will understand that you missed class. They won't penalise you, and we'll help you study for what you missed," Ernie said.

Looking relieved, Rose took the Sleeping Potion from Ginny and drank it all in one go. As the poor girl fell asleep, Ginny discreetly turned towards Hannah and Ernie. Hannah looked back with an eyebrow raised in silent question. She looked down, and Ginny saw a golden galleon in her left hand.

"Try to talk to Neville or Seamus in class, they'll be able to answer all your questions," Ginny answered in a murmur. "I have to go, I can't stay here too long, the Carrows are already keeping an eye on me."

With a small nod, the two Hufflepuff prefects saw her out of their common room.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: This is one. I don't own Harry Potter, or Ginny Weasley, or almost any characters here. **

**Chapter 5**

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><p>The silence in the Muggle Studies classroom could rival the one Snape used to have in Potions by just raising an eyebrow. The rumour of what their new teacher had done to the Hufflepuff girl had gone round the school twice and back. Mouth firmly shut, Ginny tried to convey all her hatred to Alecto Carrow with her glare. If only looks could actually kill – the witch standing in front of the class would have been killed instantly by most of the class.<p>

Even Luna looked hateful, which Ginny realised was a complete first. At the worst under Umbridge, Luna had looked merely intrigued by how low the woman who stole Dumbledore's job could stoop. When they were battling Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries, Luna had been focused and intense, but still not hateful. She'd observed the Death Eaters like she might look at a particularly disgusting creature Hagrid had presented them – with an eye keen to try and find the good in them. But, Ginny figured, even someone as good as Luna was bound to find her limit and see someone as pure evil one day. Apparently, the limit was somewhere around torturing a defenceless thirteen year old girl.

"The way the idiots this morning behaved, I don't have much hope none of you here know what Muggles are really like, do you?"

Carrow's voice was crude, and sounded dirty. It contrasted so much with the tone of voice of other teachers in the school, who often sounded severe, yet carefully constructed. Alecto Carrow sounded – stupid. Not just uneducated – Ginny knew better than to think that intelligence and education were necessarily intrinsically linked – but plain dumb, as if she'd never had an original thought of her own before. It was likely to be the case, too, when she thought about it. Traditionally, Pureblooded women were actively encouraged not to think for themselves. That had changed in recent years, but many of them hadn't received the memo.

"I'll be teaching ya how it is they really are then!"

Rolling her eyes, Ginny mused that the woman probably wouldn't know how to use her own brain even if she had received that memo.

"You!"

Ginny froze. Maybe she shouldn't have rolled her eyes.

"Whaddya know 'bout Muggles?"

"Muggles are humans who do not have Magic." Ginny thought of stopping there – it was a perfectly reasonable answer – but the thought that Carrow might be satisfied with her answer riled her up. The moment Carrow was satisfied with her, she'd know she had done something wrong. "They're perfectly similar to wizards and witches in every other way."

Carrow glared at her.

"That's what I thought. You've been brainwashed, all of you. Muggles are not similar at all to wizardkind. Tell me, Miss... Weasley. Have you ever met a Muggle?"

The faces of Mr and Mrs Granger flashed in her mind – a kind lady who didn't see her as the girl who'd set a giant monster on half the school population, and a nice man who'd looked positively bemused that her father had never seen a television before.

"Yes, I have. Very nice people. Unlike some wizards and witches I've met." Carrow looked at her in the eyes, and held her gaze. Ginny almost snorted. No one had ever won a starring contest against Ginevra Weasley.

The class was ever more silent than before, if that was possible. Second by second, Ginny felt all her good intentions and nice promises to Neville and Seamus fly away. She suddenly felt a strong kinship with Rose the Hufflepuff. There was something in Carrow's eyes that just begged her to cause trouble. She wondered for a second if that was how Harry felt when he dealt with Umbridge.

Carrow turned around, and the class let a breath out as one. The first storm has been weathered –

"Crucio!"

Ginny didn't even have time to register that Carrow had turned around before the curse hit her. She felt as if all her bones were being cracked as one, and then pierced with a thousand needles. She didn't even try to hold back her scream – there was no point trying to hide pain like this. Something in the back of her mind told her that even though it felt like it, the pain wouldn't kill her. The back of her mind had never been so far away, though. All she could think about were the thousand knives now stabbing her heart.

Suddenly it stopped.

Somehow, she'd ended up on the floor. She starred at the ceiling as if it was the most beautiful thing in the world. She didn't think she could ever move her head and look at anything else. Her lungs remembered they needed air, and she took a deep breath, that brought some residual pain in her ribs.

"So, anyone else wanna tell me about Muggles?"

* * *

><p>The class went from bad to worse. Ginny spent most of it leaning heavily on her desk, after Luna helped her up. She wasn't surprised when Carrow didn't allow her to leave the class to go rest. Though no one else got Crucioed – Ginny quickly realised that treatment was reserved for her – several students got slapped in the face, and Luna got her lips Cursed shut. Ginny was fairly sure she knew the counter-Charm, and Luna didn't look like she cared much. She was breathing a sight of relief when she left the class, and crunched her eyes shut when Carrow called to hold her back.<p>

"You think you're so smart, don't you... But none of your Order people are here now to protect their precious ickle baby Weasley, are they?."

She obviously was expecting an answer, and just because of that, Ginny held back all the smart replies and insults just edging on the tip of her tongue. Instead, she resumed their starring contest.

"That behaviour of yours, trashing around the floor of the classroom earlier, does not befit a Pureblood young lady. Detention, tonight, eight sharp. You'll be keeping company to Miss Rose Winters."

Without waiting for more, Ginny practically ran out of the classroom. She wasn't surprised to see Luna waiting outside, with Neville pacing next to her. The moment the door closed behind her, she dropped the façade she'd managed to hold most of the class and fell on the floor.

"It's alright Ginny, we'll get you to the common room," Neville said quietly.

"I'll tell McGonagall where you are, Ginny. She'll understand if you miss Transfiguration," Luna added.

Silently praising the stars for such amazing friends, she let Neville half-pulled her towards Gryffindor tower. Seamus met them half way, and for once, she didn't feel like accusing him of showing off when he simply picked her up and carried her up the rest of the way. Without even asking, he brought her up to the boys' dormitory, and gently put her down on Harry's bed.

Almost immediately, Parvati came in with a bottle of dreamless sleep potion that she swallowed without a word. Before sleep overtook her, she whispered, "I have detention at eight. Make sure I'm awake for it, please."

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><p>She was already awake when Parvati came back in the room to tell her it was time to go. She offered a sandwich. Ginny barely managed to eat half of it before she felt sick. She wished she had time for a Daydream Charm, like she'd given to Rose. Maybe later.<p>

Rose was already waiting in front of Carrow's door when she arrived. The girl was shaking with fear. Ginny looked down at her own hand and realised her fingers were trembling too. She made a fist to stop the reaction and smiled at Rose as if she got Crucioed every day by her teachers and this was really no big deal.

"Let's do this, shall we?" she said, and knocked on the door firmly. A voice inside signalled for them to enter.

She was surprised to see not Alecto but Amycus waiting by the desk.

"Ah. Our two delinquents. I've heard you were needin' some discipline. You'll be getting a bit of a head start in class. Take you wand out Weasley."

Ginny did as she was told, practicing her death glare on Carrow. She wondered for a second if she was supposed to learn to deflect curses, but it seemed unlikely Death Eaters would ever teach her to defend herself.

"The wand movement you'll be needin' is a straight slash. The incantation is Crucio. Now go on and practice on your little friend."

Ginny froze. He didn't actually expect her to...

"Whatchya waiting for?"

Apparently he did. Rose looked at her, shaking more than ever, obviously wondering just how far Ginny's principles went, and if she was about to get tortured for the second time in a day.

"No."

"No what?"

"No, I won't do it."

"Alright then. We'll be teachin' ya the other side of it, since you haven't learnt."

This time, Ginny saw it coming. She felt herself crumble to the floor as the curse hit her. The pain was worse, if possible, than the first time she was cursed, because her bones were still hurting, and she was still so tired. But another part of her, somehow completely detached realised that while the residual pain from the previous time made it more painful, Amycus's curse wasn't as strong as his sister's. What he lacked in strength, unfortunately, he made up in length. It lasted much longer than before. The detached part of her brain wondered if the two things were correlated, and then marvelled that she was even thinking about that while the main part of her brain was begging to _just be killed right now and let the pain stop just stop please oh Merlin please just stop_.

It stopped, finally. She didn't even try to open her eyes to send Carrow her death glare. She let him gloat – let him enjoy seeing her at her weakest, because she knew what didn't kill her would only make her stronger. She knew right then that it would happen again that year, because they weren't just torturing students to make an example – what example was there to make of her in front of just one other student? – but because they enjoyed it, in the sickest way possible.

They wanted to see them crumble like she just had, but most of all, they wanted them to give up, to stop hoping, to stop thinking that they would win this war.

She'd let them see her crumble; she might even let them hear her beg when it got really bad, but she wouldn't let them make her lose hope.

"That'll be all for today. Get out."

She managed to get on her feet, with Rose's help, and the younger girl all but dragged her out of the room. They walked down the corridor, and when they passed an empty classroom, Ginny opened the door, shoved Rose in it and locked the door behind them. She almost fell back on the floor and lay there for almost a minute before asking: "Are you alright Rose?"

"Am _I_ alright? Ginny, I should be asking you this! You took that curse because you refused to do it to me! Why did you do this?"

"I'm not about to stoop to their level. I'd rather be hit by them a thousand times than to do this to you. I'd like to think I wouldn't do it to anyone, but after today... well, I'm not a good enough person to say I wouldn't ever do it to them."

Rose nodded silently. They both lay on the floor without a word for several minutes before Ginny spoke again.

"Hey, Rose?"

"Mmh?"

"This morning, when you told your class that Carrow was lying about Muggles..."

"Stupidest thing I've ever done."

"Why did you do it?"

The other girl sighed.

"It just felt so wrong not to. My mother's half-blood – her father is a Muggle – and we see her cousins very often. One of them's a doctor – that's what Muggles call Healers – and he's really, really smart. Not just book-smart, you know, but also with a lot of common sense, and he's really kind, a very nice person. And Carrow, she was saying all these things, and she's obviously not half as smart as him, and I just had to say something. You know, not just because people in the class might believe her, they're not like that – but because it felt like I was almost betraying my Mum's cousin by not speaking up. You know what I mean? You probably don't – I'm just really stupid for doing things like that, my mouth just starts running, and I can't stop it. You're too smart to do things like this..."

"Hardly. And you're not stupid. Those things, they need to be said. Just, next time, let someone else say it. I can't really recommend getting tortured twice in a day."

Rose snorted. Ginny turned her head to look at her and was struck by how young the other girl looked. Was this how her mother felt when she looked at her children asking to fight, and turned them down because they were too young? But when he was Rose's age, Harry had already faced Voldemort three times, survived a killing curse and killed a basilisk. Age didn't mean much in a war, and the Carrows had proved that again today. Plus, Ginny's mission had been to protect first and second years. Rose didn't fall in these categories anymore.

"Hey, Rose? Have you ever heard of Dumbledore's Army?"

The Hufflepuff perked up.

"Are you kidding? Who here _hasn't _heard of it?"

Ginny smiled.

"Do you want in?'

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Yes! Of course!"

"Alright." Ginny smiled again. "I'm warning you, for now, it's going to sound a lot cooler than it is. But if you want in, here's your first mission: tell Ernie MacMillan, Hannah Abbott and Susan Bones to meet me at the Quidditch Pitch tomorrow morning at seven sharp. Tell them to bring brooms too. Don't tell them what just happened in detention. As a matter of fact, don't tell that to anyone." She sat up. "And for now, let's go to bed. I'd say we both need some sleep."

She walked back Rose to her common room, and then started walking towards Gryffindor Tower. She saw Terry Boot in the distance, looking positively depressed. She waved, but he didn't see her. She noticed the Head Boy badge on his chest and marvelled for a second that Malfoy wasn't carrying it. Oh, well, she thought. Minor miracles.

She didn't dare go to boys' dormitory to sleep in Harry's bed that night – the morning's raid was only too fresh in her mind – and shut the curtains around her bed with a snap when Heather started babbling at her. She took the Daydream Charm with a sigh of relief, and dreamt of a house full of children with red hair and green eyes in a small cottage by the sea.

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><p><strong>Author Note:<strong>

Several things:

- Sorry for the delay in updating. Life caught up with me, and I had less time on my hands to write properly.

- Many thanks to all my reviewers!

- Someone requested longer chapters. If that's something other people want, I could try to group more chapters together when I update – but that means less frequent updates. Any preferences?

- I wrote a one-shot that somewhat fits with the mention of Terry Boot at the end of this chapter called "You can't always get what you want." You can find it on my profile. I haven't yet decided if it will be part of the main storyline here, or just a side mention, but it's definitively part of the same universe.

Thanks for reading!

M&T


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**Disclaimer: Does anyone read those, really? I think I'm going to skip them from now on. Anyone who thinks I own this probably shouldn't be allowed on the Internet anyway.**

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><p>Flying was one of the most liberating things in the world. As she felt the wind blow through her hair, Ginny wanted to scream with joy. The sun was peaking just below the horizon and the walls of the castle in the distance were tinted with a tinge of pink.<p>

One of the wonderful things about Hogwarts was that while there was a very strict curfew enforced for the time everyone had to be in bed, no one really cared what time you got up. That was how Ginny had managed to sneak to the Quidditch pitch without anyone asking her where she was going or what she was doing outside.

Far above the pitch, she had the most beautiful view of Scotland. The castle on one side looked majestic; the Forbidden Forest on the other was enchanting from the distance; and Hogsmeade village in the distance looked perfectly quiet and cosy, giving a false impression of being perfectly peaceful.

She glanced at her watch when she saw three figures exit the castle carrying brooms and making their way towards her. Rose had passed the message, and they were perfectly on time. The person in the middle pointed their finger in the air directly towards Ginny and they took off together. She flew down a bit, still enjoying the wind in her hair, and met them at the edge of the pitch.

"Ginny, are you alright?" Susan asked immediately without bothering with "Hello". "Rose wouldn't tell us what happened last night!"

"I asked her not to. Carrow is hoping to get some horror stories going, and I won't let him get this pleasure. You know how rumors go around here. One minute you're in a bit of pain, and the next minute everyone is ready to count you as dead."

"Ginny, a Cruciatus doesn't quite count as 'a bit of pain'," Hannah said, concern clear in her voice.

"True, it's not. But it doesn't mean we can't overcome it either. And that's partly what I wanted to talk to you about today. But first things first: Carrow wanted me to 'practice' Cruciatus on Rose last night."

The three other students gasped, and Ernie's arm shot out as Hannah looked like she was going to slip from her broom.

"I didn't, of course, so I got punished again. The thing is, if he asked me to do it last night, it means it'll happen again in detentions in the future. And while I can take the pain... Well, not everyone can afford to say no."

The three Hufflepuffs looked at each other, slowly understanding what she meant.

"Do you mean you think student are going to have to start torturing each other?" Hannah asked.

Ginny nodded.

"But we can't go around cursing each other! I refuse to do that!" Ernie said defiantly.

"We might have to. That's what I'm getting at. Some of us can take it – or at least, we can recover from it. I can, and I'm sure most fifth, sixth and seventh year students can as well. And so if Carrow ever asks anyone to curse me in detention, I want to person to do it. I think Cruciatus is more or less strong depending on the person casting it – and I'm ready to bet it wouldn't hurt as much if one of you three did it. Really, we'd be doing each other a favour."

Ernie seemed prepared to protest again, but Susan stopped him.

"Ginny's right. The Unforgiveables, one thing that sets them apart is that to make them work, you really have to have your heart set on it. If I cursed one of you three here, it'd be very painful, for sure, but not nearly as much as if one of these bastards did it."

Ginny nodded in agreement.

"So basically, Ginny, you're saying that if you're asked, you will Curse other people?" Hannah asked; Ginny could sense a small bit of disgust in her voice.

"Only if that person agreed to it beforehand, and only if they're above fourth year. I will still make a stand for the younger students. It doesn't matter if they can take it. I think we should make clear one way or another that we're better than the Death Eaters."

Hannah still looked uncomfortable.

"Look," Ginny continued, "One way or another, we're going to end up being Cursed. What I'm saying is that I'd rather have it happen on my terms, and have the pain be a bit milder if possible. I got Crucioed twice yesterday, and while it's possible to recover from it, it's still a bitch."

Susan gave her a smile. "It's alright, Ginny, we understand. It's just a bit hard to come to terms with the idea that hurting our friends has become the lesser of two evils. I'm guessing you'd like us to pass your instructions to other people in the D.A.?"

Ginny nodded and was suddenly struck by the realisation that people were now looking at her as the person in charge. A small voice in her head answered 'Well, duh. If you didn't want to be in charge, you shouldn't have _taken charge_.'

"For now, keep it to people in the D.A., but if torture detentions start happening more, spread the word to other people you trust. And we need to start asking each other now if we may use Crucio on each other. I'm giving you my permission, and you can pass it to anyone you talk to."

The question she didn't ask hung in the air. Susan was the first to answer, loud and clear.

"Same here. As Ginny said, if I'm going to be tortured, I'll do it on my own terms."

Hannah looked uncertain, but then nodded. "Alright, I agree. But we're all clear that if anyone under fourth year gives us permission, it won't matter – they won't be tortured no matter what."

Ernie added his agreement, looking as if he felt sick. "We'll pass the message. But you know, I'm fairly sure some people would curse you with or without your agreement. I hate to talk about a member of my house this way, but Smith would use Crucio not to save your skin, but to save his own."

"Well, then, we can be thankful that he's too much of a coward to do anything that would land him in detention anyway," Ginny said with a smirk. "Now I'll get out of here before we start looking suspicious. Wait a few minutes before coming in the castle too. If anyone asks, you were just practicing Quidditch."

* * *

><p>Heather was already up when Ginny came back in their dormitory. She looked up from her bed where she was reading a letter, and quickly hid the piece of parchment below her pillow. She looked a bit panicked about it, and didn't do much to hide it. Ginny figured she was expected to ask what the matter was, but couldn't be bothered. Whatever had Heather's knickers in a twist, Ginny had bigger dragons to hatch.<p>

She nodded to the other girl, and went in the shower. Even though she hadn't pushed herself much, she still felt a bit sweaty from the flying. When she came back out, Heather was standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. She looked suspiciously as if she'd just moved away from somewhere else; seeing the way her eyes darted around the room, Ginny quickly deduced that this "somewhere else" had been her bed. She raised her eyebrows to show the girl she wasn't fooled, and then went to her closet as if nothing had happened. Whatever the girl had been looking for, she wasn't going to find it. If Alecto Carrow hadn't found anything, Heather Smethley certainly wasn't going to either.

Heather ran out of the room, and Ginny wondered, not for the first time, what was up with the girl.

* * *

><p>By dinnertime, Ginny realised that between Luna (who she had talked to in her first class of the day) and the three Hufflepuffs, word had been spread wide about her plans. All the members of Dumbledore's Army that she saw in the corridors signalled to her, some with a thumbs-up, others playing with a Galleon, that they had received the message. Those that managed to talk to her quickly gave her permission to Crucio them if she had to.<p>

She found herself excited about being part of a secret society again. She felt again the thrill that she'd experienced two years before, being part of a secret club of people who didn't acknowledge each other in the corridors of the school, but all _knew_ that there was more than met the eye. She felt almost ashamed of herself for it – the context, after all, was even worse than it had been under Umbridge – but it was sometimes truly elating to be screwing with the Carrows' plans right under their noses.

While the two Death Eater siblings clearly had some favourite targets – Ginny first amongst them – they did not seem to have singled out member of the D.A.

Snape, surprisingly, didn't seem to care at all what was going on in the school. He spent most of his days shut down in his office. He had known, of course, of the existence of the D.A., and would probably know exactly who the members were and who to watch, but if he had given any indication of that to the Carrows, they were not using them.

By the end of the first week, members of the D.A. had already given out more sleeping potions and Daydream Charms than she cared to count; and they had been introduced to several more of their sickly creative ways of enforcing discipline. It turned out that Blood Quills were not something just Umbridge used – and that unfortunately was a lesser punishment. A fourth year Ravenclaw had spent a full hour levitated upside down for missing curfew because he stayed in the library too late.

They were not allowed to go to the Hospital Wing, but thankfully, Madam Pomfrey had taken it upon herself to "lose" entire stocks of Dittany – and sometimes sleeping potions – directly in the bags of some students. While the Carrows had no idea which students were most likely to undermine them, it looked like Madam Pomfrey knew exactly who to pass her potions to if she wanted them used properly.

Flitwick offered Luna some advanced lessons in Charms, and spent hours teaching her healing spells. Professor Sprout took Neville as special assistant, and put in his care certain plants that were excellent ingredients for healing potions. Coincidently, Professor Slughorn started a special module on those same healing potions in the advanced potions class that Ginny took.

Ginny and the other members of Dumbledore's Army fully understood the message sent by their teachers: they'd do anything they could to help, but at the end of the day, the students had to manage on their own. Remembering the horror that the school had been after Umbridge fired Dumbledore, Ginny could only agree with them. Things were already difficult enough – if the Carrows managed to fire the teachers that were on their side, it would be a complete disaster.

* * *

><p>Standing in front of Ron's former closet in the seventh year's boys' dorm, Ginny frowned. Two weeks into the term, their stocks of Daydream Charms (disguised as boxes of blank parchment) were dwindling much faster than she had thought they would. If the twins sent too many of them, even disguised, it would raise some red flags. They were incredibly complicated to make from scratch, and she didn't feel like she had the energy to make many of them anyway. Adding the essence of a Cheering Charm to a sleeping draught was no beginner's game. She already had her hands full with the Healing Potions on top of being the Carrows' most hated student.<p>

She made a note to ask the twins to send her as many disguised Daydream Charms as possible without becoming suspicious. They were bound to run out at some point, but she'd cross that hurdle when she came to it. She had enough to worry about for the moment.

She jumped two metres backwards when Seamus and Neville barged in the room talking excitedly, both with giant smiles on their faces.

"Merlin, you two scared me!"

"It is our dorm, you know," Neville said, beaming.

"What got you two so chipper today? I didn't realise we had anything to be happy about..."

"We heard the coolest thing ever," Seamus answered.

"Ever. Really. It's amazing," Neville added excitedly.

"Michael Corner heard it from Tabitha Tides, who heard it from her aunt this morning in a letter."

"And Romilda heard almost the same from her older sister who works at the ministry."

"Amazing, Gin. Really incredible."

"Fine, I get it, whatever it is, it's amazing. What is it though – did Harry finally send Ugly Snake Face in hell where he belongs?"

"No, not quite. But almost as good." Neville was practically bouncing around the room. "Harry, Hermione and Ron broke into the Ministry and freed a bunch of Muggle-borns who were about to be shipped to Azkaban."

Ginny sat on her bed, not quite trusting her legs.

"Apparently, according to Tabitha's Aunt, they also got as far as Umbridge's office and got Mad-Eye's Magical Eye."

"Of course, it's all hush-hush – the Ministry's not about to admit that they got their behinds handed to them by three teenagers. Apparently they were using Polyjuice and passing as Ministry employees – but then, one of the fake Ministry employees conjured a Patronus – a giant stag, and really, there's no mistaking whose Patronus that is."

"And Romilda's sister said there was also an Otter – that's Hermione's Patronus, right? And there was a third person who didn't make a Patronus, but we can all figure out who that was too."

"Well, at least, we figured it out – as far as Ministry employees know, three persons broke in and liberated Muggle-borns, we sort of figured out who they were on our own," Neville concluded with a giant smile.

Ginny's jaw had dropped. She didn't know whether to be elated and scared. They were out there, they were taking charge, but they were in so much danger. She swallowed a cry – Ginny Weasley did not cry in public. She was so proud of them, and she was absolutely terrified too.

"They escaped?"

"Yeah, they did. You can be sure that if they had caught any of them, the Ministry would be announcing it pretty loud by now. But since they haven't, they're trying to cover it all up. You won't read about this in the Prophet, I'm sure."

"I'm sure we'll read about it in the Quibbler, though. Too bad most people don't read it. Everyone should hear about this. It would boost morale a bit," Ginny said. Despite her fears, she felt a triumphant smile growing on her face. "So we'll have to make sure everyone does read the Quibbler."

"What do you mean?" Seamus asked with a frown.

"I mean that the D.A. has found its second mission of the year. Hogwarts had better be ready for us."

**AN: I've looked in my copy of Deathly Hallows to figure out when the Trio broke in the Ministry, and I couldn't find any definite indications – but I sort of guessed that it was sometime in September. If I got it wrong, sorry!**

**Many thanks to my reviewers. Hope you enjoyed this chapter!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"OK, if we're going to do this, we'll do it properly. If we're going to get Crucioed into next year, we might as well make it worth our while. Luna, how many Quibblers do you think you can sneak into the castle without raising too many questions?"

"About one hundred. Daddy can disguise a pile as a book, and I did ask him to send me that volume about Teboes. I'm still trying to make myself an invisibility cloak."

Ginny made a note to look up what Teboes were – not all creatures that Luna talked about were imaginary – and moved on.

"Once we have the copies, we need to make sure as many students as possible read them. Hogwarts currently has about 500 students, so each copy will need to be read several times. We can assume that the Carrows and Snape will try to destroy any copies they find, so we have to get creative."

"We could try to link a duplication charm to a vanishing charm," suggested Michael Corner. "So they try 'Evanesco' and bam! Two Quibblers!"

"Yeah, but that will take ages," replied Anthony Goldstein. "That's a really complicated bit of spell work there, and not many of us can do it. And those of us who can are already busy with the Protean Charm."

"Shh!" whispered Terry Boot, two tables away. Everyone suddenly turned back to the books they had spread on the table they had claimed in the library. As Head Boy, Terry was probably the best look-out they could find. Ginny wished he was sitting at the table with them – Michael and Anthony were smart, for sure, but Terry Boot's brains were second only to Hermione's. But when she'd invited him at the table, he'd mumbled something about having a lot on his plate already, and had offered to keep an eye out for them.

As Snape walked behind them without sparing them a glance, Ginny was suddenly glad for Terry's idea. The greasy-haired murderer had barely taken any notice of his students so far this year, and Ginny wasn't interested in being the one to break their streak.

She scribbled a note to Luna.

_Let me know when you have them. We'll find a way to spread them around._

She then discreetly nodded to everyone – meeting dismissed. They'd look incredibly suspicious if they all left at the same time, so instead they trickled out of the library one by one, until Ginny and Neville were the only ones left at the table. They gathered their things and were making their way out when Ginny realised she'd forgotten her quill.

Returning to the table, she saw Snape looking under it. She hid between two shelves to try and see what he was doing. He reached in the garbage can next to the table where they'd all been sitting, and looked through the papers. Eyes wide, Ginny turned around, abandoning her quill. She grabbed Neville's elbow as dragged him out.

"Snape is watching us too. We need to be even more careful."

* * *

><p>The pile of Quibblers had arrived.<p>

Neville had asked her five time already today what the plan was to make everyone in the castle read the paper (there was no plan).

She'd felt Snape's eyes following her around at breakfast.

The young Ravenclaw boy was crying in a sort of despair that made her heart break – all he'd said to Carrow was that he didn't want to use Dark Magic.

They were out of Patented Daydream Charms.

She had a growing pile of homework to do, including a Dark Arts essay ("Name and explain five ways Dark Magic can be used to determine blood ancestry") that she really didn't want to write.

Demelza was on her case about Quidditch try-outs.

Heather was getting stranger and stranger.

* * *

><p>Something was bound to give – and that something was Ginny. She slid down the wall of the bathroom that she'd just locked, and let the tears fall. All she wanted was for Harry to be sitting next to her, hold her in his arms and tell her everything would be fine, because he was in charge again. Then he'd kiss her in the way that only he managed to do – the way that made her warm from the inside. He'd give her that adorable lopsided smile that made her melt, and everything would be fine again.<p>

She snorted through her tears. More realistically, if Harry ever found her crying like this, he'd mumble something awkwardly, pat her on the head, and run off to find Hermione and ask her to fix everything. Harry could deal with a lot of things, but he just couldn't deal with a girl crying. Luckily for the both of them, Ginny usually wasn't the crying type.

"Ginny?"

Lavender Brown was somewhere at the bottom of the list of people she wanted to see right now. It could be worse – she could be dealing with Romilda Vane – but her brother's crazy ex-girlfriend wasn't going to make things any better any time soon.

"Ginny, open up, we just want to help." Parvati Patil was one step up from Lavender Brown, though Ginny knew from Hermione that the two girls kept no secrets from each other. They were also, unfortunately, very persistent. Ginny could spot a losing battle when she was faced with one. She pulled out her wand and unlocked the door. Immediately, the two seventh year came in and sat on either side of her. They were quiet for a while, before Parvati spoke again.

"Listen, Ginny, we know you'd probably rather have Hermione or Ron or Harry here with you now – to be honest, I don't think I ever appreciated the three of them enough until they were gone. You talk with them more openly than you talk with anyone else, even Luna or Neville, anyone can see that."

"And we all know you miss them more than anyone else in the school," Lavender continued. "And they're probably the only ones who can see beyond the Wonderwoman outlook you give yourself."

"Wonderwoman?" Ginny asked, a bit confused.

"Let's just say Hermione has some strange Muggle role-models," Lavender said dismissively. "The fact is, if they were here, one of them would have staged an intervention earlier than we did. Because they'd have noticed earlier than us that you are under too much pressure. We're sorry it took us so long to realise you had so much to deal with."

Lavender smiled at her kindly – _kindly_. What was up with that girl? She'd tolerated Ginny most of the time since coming back to Hogwarts because they were on the same side of the war, but she'd never actually been _kind_. As far as Ginny knew, she was still one of those hated people who was found guilty for the Ron-Lavender break-up – right up there with Harry, though probably not quite as high as Hermione. Lavender noticed her astonishment.

"Listen, Ginny. I'm not on your side in this war just because we're both in Gryffindor. My brother has a Muggle-born fiancée, and the last we heard from her, before she had to run off in hiding, was at the beginning of August. She's pregnant, Ginny. She's all alone out there, Merlin knows in how much danger, and she's pregnant with my first niece or nephew, and I'm scared, because I never thought I could care for another human being the way I found myself caring for that unborn child – and it's not even mine! So I'm going to do anything, absolutely anything I can to make sure she can come home before she has that baby, and she can marry my brother soon. And I know for a fact that to do all that, I need to give you all the help I can, because you seem to be the only person around here who has her shit together. And if Harry decides to ask for help, you're probably going to be one of the first persons he talks to, so I want your life to be as easy as possible. So I'm growing up, believe it or not. And I'm leaving last year's Lavender in the past, because honestly, that Lavender was a whiny bitch and she isn't going to be much use against Death Eaters."

Ginny sat, stunned and speechless, tears completely forgotten. That had to be the most mature and eloquent thing she'd ever heard Lavender Brown say.

"In short, what Lavender is saying is: we want to help," Parvati summed up. "You're taking on too much. No one can deal with so much pressure. So, let's see how you can delegate."

Ginny spent the next fifteen minutes opening up to the two girls. By the time they'd finished discussing her problems, it had been decided that Neville would take over operation Quibbler (it turned out the reason he kept bugging her about it was because he had several ideas of his own that he'd shared with Lavender). Demelza would be asked to help organise the Quidditch try-outs. They'd find help in the rest of the D.A. to make new Daydream Charms – getting better from Cruciatus Curses thrown at them still was the first priority of the clandestine group. Finally, neither Lavender nor Parvati would let her leave the bathroom without a solemn promise that the next time she felt like she took on too much, she'd come to them for help.

* * *

><p>If the Carrows were infuriated when they started to find students reading the Quibbler, it was nothing next to their anger when they tried to Vanish one, only to find it double in front of their eyes. Neville could barely suppress a smile, and Ginny worried for a moment he'd be found out as the brains of the operation too quickly. However, when the Carrows passed in the ranks trying to find a culprit, Neville had plastered on a face of perfect innocence.<p>

By the time they managed to confiscate all the issues of the Quibbler, almost everyone in the castle had read it. Ginny felt the atmosphere of rebellion simmer – she could almost taste the sweet pleasure of everyone smirking in the Carrows' back. Some students even found the unofficial leaders of the D.A. and made their interest in joining known. It was all wink-wink, nudge-nudge, of course, but their numbers were growing.

No one was more ecstatic about the whole thing than Neville. After Ginny handed over the reins of operation Quibbler to him, he'd run almost everything on his own – getting some help from Michael on the duplication Charms and asking just a couple students to help spread the copies around. There was suddenly a different aura coming from him. Simply put, he was oozing confidence, and if Ginny wasn't already smitten with Harry, she'd probably be taking a whole new look at Mr. Longbottom.

There were a lot of girls who took a second look at him, too. Ginny almost snorted her pumpkin juice through her nose when she saw Lavender ogling him over breakfast with the same look she'd given Ron after his Quidditch victory the previous year. Neville, bless him, was completely oblivious to his new-found magnetism.

He found Ginny in the common room just a few days after the last few Quibblers were burned in the Carrow's fireplace.

"Ginny, I have an idea!"

She set down her quill, glad to be distracted from another horrid Muggle Studies essay.

"Do tell."

"Have you noticed how everyone is changing in the school? How more and more people are joining the resistance? We're starting to win!"

Ginny bit her tongue. While they'd been getting more support lately, it wasn't anything to justify Neville's sudden enthusiasm. On the other hand, it was just so nice to see Neville excited about anything that toning him down would probably feel like kicking a puppy.

"Yeah, I've noticed," she answered dryly.

"We need to keep it up! Let them know that we're fighting. It's like you said, if they know they're not alone, they won't get depressed, and they'll keep on hoping, and we'll win, or something."

_Or something_, Ginny thought – she couldn't recall when exactly she'd made the speech Neville was referring to, but she wanted to go back in time and slap herself. Her friend looked like someone who had just had a terrible, terrible idea, but was absolutely convinced it was the best thing since pumpkin juice.

"What do you mean exactly?"

Neville brightened. _Oh dear_, she thought. _This is going to be bad_.

"I thought was could write on the walls, and scribble on desks and everything, things like 'Support Harry Potter!' or 'Muggle-borns are the best!' Things like that, just to annoy thee Carrows. That'd drive them mad, and everyone would see it."

Ginny felt a headache growing. There were about a million things wrong with that idea, but Neville had that look on his face that meant he was going to do it no matter what.

"Nev, that's a huge risk for not so much gain. I mean, if you get caught, it could get really, really ugly for you! And you know Snape could easily trace these things back to you, if he tried."

Neville kept a smile on his face.

"I've thought about that. Michael said he knows how to cover our tracks – some spell he found while researching for operation Quibbler. And I thought I could get Ernie to help avoid getting caught – for some reason, Mrs Norris likes him, and she lets him know when someone is coming. All I need help with is to make better slogans. You think you could help with that?"

Ginny sighed. He'd actually thought this through. He looked so sure of himself, so unlike the Neville he'd shown the world for years, and so much more like the Neville she knew he could be. She recalled Lavender's loving gaze at him that morning. Oh well, if he was going to go down, she could at least be a good friend and ensure he got snogged properly beforehand.

"You know what, Neville? I'm really too busy to help you with this, Quidditch try-outs are coming up, and the Daydream Charms are taking a lot of my time. But Lavender is really, really good with words. Get her on your team, and spend some time with her finding some slogans. And don't get caught."

"Lavender is good with words? Really?" Neville sounded dubious.

"Believe me – give her a chance, and she'll surprise you."

**AN: I'm really sorry about the delay in updating – I have been insanely busy at work. It looks like my workload is going to lessen now, so unless my boss comes up with another giant project for me to work on, I'll be able to update more often in the future.**

**Many thanks for all the reviews and the story alerts and the story favourites!  
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	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

_Dearest brother of mine,_

_The school year so far is going great for me. I did fall off my broom several times, so I'm regularly in ex_crucio_ting pain, but you know me – I can't really fly worth a damn. Anyway, the pain goes away fairly easily when I get back to the common room and daydream a bit. I'm afraid I'm just running out of interesting topics to daydream about, if you have any to suggest, I'd really appreciate it. I believe certain brothers of ours usually have great ideas. I've also been supplying daydream ideas to some friends of mine who also fell off their brooms, and once I know someone else is daydreaming about the same thing as me, it always sorts of ruins it all for me._

_We're getting frequent updates about what's going on outside of school from our headmaster, and as we have no reason to distrust him, you really don't need to tell me what's happening. _

_Do tell Ron I hope he feels better soon. Spattergroit must really, really suck, I really wish he could get better soon. It turns out, Hogwarts without any of my many brothers in it really, really sucks._

_Love you all, miss you all,_

_Ginny_

_PS: Now that you're married, am I going to become an aunt any time soon?_

* * *

><p>"Cryptic enough?" Ginny asked her friend on their way to the Great Hall after class.<p>

Luna frowned and made a face.

"Yes. The bit about trusting the headmaster is slightly overdone, but it's nothing they can arrest you for. And I don't think anyone outside your family could understand the daydream reference. You do need to work on your prose though. You repeat _daydream_ four times."

"Good. If I send it today, the twins might be able to pass me some daydream charms at the next Hogsmeade week-end, provided it doesn't get cancelled."

"They won't cancel it," Luna said with assurance, casually stepping aside to avoid a running first year..

"How do you know that?"

"Something Daddy heard about. They're trying to create opportunities for Pureblood students to meet and start dating, so that we all make babies soon and restore wizarding society."

"..."

"Indeed. It's really stupid. As if the only reason neither of us is snogging Draco Malfoy is lack of opportunities."

"Eww. Kissing Malfoy. I might have to Scourgify my brain to get rid of the mental image."

"I'd much rather kiss Seamus Finnigan."

Ginny snorted. Luna and Seamus. That would be an explosive match.

"I'm very serious, you know." Ginny looked at her friend and her jaw dropped. Luna actually looked like she meant it.

"You want to snog Seamus Finnigan?"

"He has his charms. I like the red hair. I wouldn't have minded kissing your brother last year, but he's so very rude."

"Seamus is hardly Merlin's gift to women either... and you wanted to snog _Ron_?" she asked, astonished.

"Don't act all that surprised. I know as his sister you're supposed to be blind to this, but your brother is actually good looking. But also very rude," she added as an afterthought.

"OK, now, I'm _really_ going to have to Scourgify my brain. Anyway. Seamus? Are you sure about that?"

"Not really. It was just a passing thought. I might try. I've never kissed anyone, you know. It'd be lovely to know how that feels like. Who would you kiss if you had the opportunity?"

Ginny rolled her eyes.

"Luna, you _know_ who."

"You-Know-Who? Really? And how would Harry feel about that?"

"What? No! I mean, that's not..." Ginny stopped, seeing the look on her best friend's face. "Luna! You made a _joke_! On _purpose_!"

"I've heard that boys like that. I'm training myself. How am I doing?"

Ginny bit her tongue to avoid laughing out loud.

"You're doing great." They'd arrived in the Great Hall, and started to make their way to their respective tables. "Hey, you know what?" she said as they were going to go their separate ways. "You should just walk up to Seamus one of these days and snog him. That's how Lavender got Ron last year, and that's how Harry got me. It's turning out to be a very efficient method."

"I'll try that," Luna answered. She gave her a bright smile and sat down at the Ravenclaw table.

* * *

><p>Ginny came to severely regret her matchmaking skills as the first Hogsmeade week-end of the year came around. Luna had taken her advice a few days earlier, and was now taking advanced snogging lessons from Seamus. They were, as she had expected, the most mismatched couple she'd ever seen – from what she could gather, the only thing they had in common was an interest in shoving their tongues in someone else's mouth. Ginny wasn't sure if it was disgusting or mildly interesting, as she observed them two tables away at the Three Broomsticks. Probably a bit of both, she mused.<p>

The whole affair would have been merely funny, had Lavender's sudden fascination for Neville not resulted in the same kind of action. But, as she saw all of her closest friends somehow giving in to teenage hormones at the exact same time, she found herself extremely bored, and not amused at all. She sighed as Parvati and Anthony grabbed the last free table and started doing things that she suspected were probably illegal in several countries. After dropping a couple Sickles on her table before leaving, she concluded that Hogsmeade was completely uninteresting when most shops were closed and one had no friends to talk to whatsoever.

Nonetheless, she had no inclination to return to the castle before curfew. The illusion of freedom for a full day was nothing to laugh at in the middle of a war, so she started walking around the village aimlessly. The advantage of Hogsmeade was, as soon as one left the main street, peace and quiet surrounded you. The atmosphere was conducive to deep thoughts, and Ginny found herself wondering what more the D.A. could do to help Harry or the Order.

The problem wasn't a lack of ideas – it was a lack of ideas that wouldn't get someone killed for nothing. Neville's crazy campaign to write on the walls of the castle was about as far as she was willing to go on the offensive. Other ideas – like Seamus's suggestion to enlist house elves to poison the Carrows and/or Snape – were clearly more risk than they were worth; not to mention, they couldn't ask devoted house elves to endanger their lives like this. Anyone doing this was bound to be killed – not by Death Eaters but by Hermione the minute she'd hear of that. Strangely enough, the potential wrath of Hermione Granger had managed to shut Seamus up more effectively than the idea of torture by Death Eaters. No one had even quite forgotten Marietta Edgecombe. Or Dolores Umbridge. Or Draco Malfoy's broken nose. Or pretty much anyone who'd ever found themselves on the wrong side of Hermione Granger's wand..

The one idea Ginny did have, she had no idea how to realise. She knew for a fact the Order was working on it too. They all guessed that Dumbledore must have left the Sword of Gryffindor to Harry for a reason. They had no idea what that reason might be, but Harry probably did – and if Dumbledore thought Harry would require the sword, then one way or another, it had to make its way to him.

The sword was in Hogwarts, at least according to what Scrimgour had said. Admittedly, since the man had died, it could have been moved, but it might not have been. Unfortunately, Hogwarts was big – very, very big. And Ginny had absolutely no idea where to start looking. Last time she'd seem the stupid sword, she'd just come out of the worst ordeal of her life, and all she wanted to hide in her mother's arms and cry forever. After Harry had given it back to the Headmaster, she had no idea where it'd been put.

Sending the D.A. on a mass scavenger hunt for the sword in the castle sounded like both the best and the worst idea of the lot. If she could unglue Neville and Luna from their current face-sucking partners long enough, she'd have to ask for their opinions.

She was so deep in her thoughts that she hadn't noticed that she was being watched, until a familiar looking old lady sat down right next to her in a park.

"Wotcher, Ginny," the old woman whispered

It took a lot of willpower to avoid hugging Tonks right there. The square looked quiet, but you never knew who could be watching in the shadows.

"It was much too easy to sneak up on you, dear. You should be more careful. Constant vigilance and all that." She waved her wand around under her coat for a couple seconds. "You can talk freely, I just made sure no one can eavesdrop." Her friend sounded tired and worried, not at all like the Tonks she knew.

"I'm so glad to see you... I missed you so much, you and everyone else...What's new?" Ginny asked, desperate for uncensored news.

"Quite a lot, actually. First things first. I just slipped in your pocket several Daydream Charms, courtesy of your brothers. They're shrunk and disguised – Bill and I taught you the countercharms this summer, you should figure it out. For anyone else, right now, they're just quills to take notes in class."

"Brilliant. It's quite hard to get over Cruciatus without these..."

"On that topic," Tonks continued in a completely unusual serious tone, "Your mother begs you to do nothing whatsoever that could get you in trouble. Your father and your brothers just ask to do nothing you'll get caught for. I'm asking you to do nothing that will get you punished too harshly if you do get caught for it."

Ginny sighed. She wasn't sure she could do any of these things.

"Finally... Would you like some good news?"

"Merlin, I'd love some – I just didn't know there were any to go around these days..."

Tonks paused for a moment, as though she was nervous at the idea of saying her good news.

"Remus and I are having a baby," the older witch said, a smile creeping on her face.

"You are?" A giant smile broke on Ginny's face. More than anything, she wished she could hug her friend. "That's fantastic! Remus must be so thrilled! And you...!"

"Remus is... getting used to the idea. After a few kicks in the backside from a friend, he's coming to the point where he's mostly fine. That's all I'll say on this topic. I have to run before we start looking suspicious. One last thing: if you have access to a wireless, tonight go to station 145 at 10 pm. The password is Fawkes. I can't say more than that."

Before Ginny could reply, Tonks was gone.

She practically danced her way back to the castle, beyond excited by Tonks's baby news, the relief of knowing she had more Daydream Charms, and the anticipation of whatever was supposed to be happening on the wireless that night.

It seemed like nothing could possibly get her down – not the very public displays of affection that her friends seemed committed to, not the shove that Pansy Parkison gave her to trip her down the stairs (the bruise the next day would probably be ugly, but who cared?), not the threats of torture from the Carrows at dinner that night.

A few minutes before ten, she barged in the seventh year boys' dormitory, and loudly demanded they stop snogging their girlfriends. She didn't even want to know how Seamus had managed to sneak Luna up there.

"Ginny, what are you doing?" Lavender asked – no, demanded. She was clearly of the opinion that any minute spent without her tongue down Neville's throat was a minute wasted.

"I couldn't do this in my dorm with Heather listening." She set several privacy charms around the room before taking out her wireless and setting it to 145. She wasn't sure how the password would work, but somehow, the radio just _asked_ for it, and when she answered "Fawkes," she almost yelled in surprise when the radio tuned to the sound of her brother's voice.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Potterwatch," Fred's voice announced.

Lavender squealed, and everyone sat down around the radio, teenage hormones quickly forgotten.

"My name is..."

"Don't say your name you idiot!" Ginny was fairly sure that was Lee Jordan.

"Oh. Right. Well, we'll come up with code names later. Everyone listening to this probably knows exactly who I am... Anyway, this is the very first episode of Potterwatch, the wizarding world's new underground news source... "

Fred kept on talking, sometimes interrupted by Lee or George. He wasn't saying anything very new to Ginny – mostly, they rambled on about how to detect Death Eater, and she recognised most of these tips almost word for word from Tonks's lectures – but it felt so good, so amazing to hear her family, even if it was over the radio. Tears in her eyes, she looked up and saw her four friends looking starstruck at the wireless, almost as if they expected it to spring to life, with giant smiles on their faces.

After just fifteen minutes, Fred's voice concluded:

"This was our very first edition, but fear not – there will be more. Tune back in next Thursday at the same time. The password will be Padfoot. Spread the word to people you can trust. Onwards."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: OK, I have no idea where that dialogue between Luna and Ginny came from. It sort of just wrote itself like it had a life of its own and was just using my fingers to be typed out as a vehicle. I hope you liked it even if it's a bit random.<strong>

**And yes, Luna and Seamus are a horrible couple. But teenagers, even Luna, are horny, and will go for inappropriate partners. Don't worry if you hate that ship, it won't sail for long.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Naturally, Neville got caught. It was for something stupid, of course (writing "Potter for President" on the wall next to the entrance of the Gryffindor common room. If he was going to get himself caught, couldn't he at least have done so next to the Slytherin common room, where it would have pissed off someone?). Ginny didn't find out till the next morning, when Seamus, white with worry caught her as she came down the stairs of her dorm, asking her if she knew where his friend was. That question told her everything she needed to know. She ran back upstairs to the seventh year girls' dorm, hoping beyond belief that it just meant Neville and Lavender had graduated from heavy snogging to something more serious.

That wasn't the case, unfortunately, and they all soon resigned themselves to the idea that their day would be spent investigating Neville's fate. Seamus was already musing insane plans to free Neville from Voldemort himself, and Lavender was moaning the fact that the way things were going, she'd die a virgin.

(Ginny gave herself three seconds to sigh with relief hearing that bit – it meant her idiotic brother hadn't been quite stupid enough to do the deed with her last year.)

The Seventh Years had Transfiguration first thing in the morning, and Parvati was tasked with the mission to get as much as possible out of their Head of House. When Parvati saw Ginny later on, she informed her that McGonagall hadn't even known Neville was missing, and that she was "more furious that I've ever seem her, and that includes a few times in fifth year when she went up against Umbridge. If he wasn't such a git, I'd feel sorry for Snape right now – she went to his office to demand to know where Nev is."

Whether McGonagall got answers out of Snape or not, they were not to find out. When asked by her students, her lips thinned, she shook her head and changed the conversation. They did find out, however, how he got caught out of Rose Winters who had been with him just before the incident ("If those bastards don't kill him, I will – hadn't we agreed not to take anyone under Fifth Year on these suicidal expeditions?"). She had managed to get away. Filch, the little scumbag, found him, and immediately alerted both Carrows. Alecto had showed up, and had seemed, as Rose put it, "disgustingly happy to have someone linked to a crime to punish properly". The young Hufflepuff obviously felt really guilty for leaving Neville on his own, and no matter how much Ginny pointed out there wasn't much to be done by an inexperienced witch once Death Eaters got involved, the girl seemed to think the whole disaster was entirely her fault. Ginny eventually gave up and left her in the care of Susan Bones (with strict instructions to _keep her out of trouble_).

The day went on, without any signs off Neville. The Carrows looked much too happy for comfort, and even Snape deigned grace the Great Hall with his presence and had the faintest hint of a smile on his lips. By the time dinner was over, Ginny was trying to figure which one of Seamus's insane rescue plans they should go with. Both Terry and Hannah had managed to find her and proudly announce that their houses would help the Gryffindors in rescue missions – though Ginny did notice that more than a few people overhearing this looked uncomfortable; she made a note to remember that no matter how committed, the members of the D.A. did not, in fact, speak for everyone. There were still more than a few people happy to sit back and stay safe while the Wizarding World collapsed.

All this was for nothing, though, because when she stepped in the empty common room with Seamus after dinner, they found Neville laying on the couch – grey-faced, bleeding, bruised, swollen, passed-out – but alive.

She didn't think she'd ever seen anyone looking quite that bad. Even after Bill had been attacked by Greyback, half his face had looked somewhat normal. Neville looked as if not a single part of his body had been spared from torture – which was probably the case, she realised.

Without a word, Seamus stepped towards the sofa, lifted his friend as if he weighed nothing more than a feather, and carried him up the stairs. Ginny followed close behind, trying to hide them both from the view of the other students suddenly pouring from the portrait hole. The loud whispers behind her indicated that she didn't nearly succeed.

As she moved to open the door for Seamus, another shock met her – the dorm had been searched, and whoever had done it didn't bother to hide their tracks.

"Damn. The last time this happened was in Second Year when someone searched Harry's stuff. We never did find out who had done it. I think in this case, we can make a pretty good guess."

Ginny chose to ignore the bit about who might have searched Harry's stuff in Second Year, and gestured to put Neville in Dean's bed, since Neville's was now out of order.

"Take his shirt off," she said quietly. It was a testimony to how scared they both were for Neville that Seamus didn't make a lewd comment. She turned to the bathroom to get supplies to clean him up.

His chest looked worse, if that was even possible. It had been reduced to one giant bruise. The only reassuring part was the movement of his lungs, showing that he was still breathing. Gently, Ginny started running her hands over him, feeling his ribs. She counted at least three that were broken, and two more she wasn't sure about.

"We need to take his trousers off as well, to see the extent of the damage." Seamus nodded and did as she asked. She breathed a sigh of relief when she noticed nothing was broken. His knees were heavily bruised, and there were several cuts all along his legs. Looking at the boy before her – no, the man before her, because if Neville hadn't been a man before, he surely was now – she could only reach one conclusion.

"I can't do this by myself. There's too much damage that I can see, and it's likely that there's more damage that I don't see. I could hurt him more by trying to fix this. We need Madam Pomfrey."

"I'll go get her," Seamus answered gravely.

He opened the door of the dorm, only to find a crowd made of practically all the Gryffindor boys, and a good half of the girls waiting in complete silence. Lavender was the first to speak, sounding uncharacteristically shy.

"How is he? Is it bad?"

"We need to get Pomfrey," Seamus said, and that really answered everything.

"We'll go," answered Jimmy Peakes, pointing at himself and Ritchie Coote. Seamus nodded silently, and walked back in the dorm. He sat on the chair next to Ginny, and looked at his friend. Ginny was wiping a wet cloth on his forehead. Lavender timidly walked in the room, and Ginny handed her the cloth.

"Please clean him up. I'll look through my book to figure out what we can do. Seamus, can you close the door? As nice as it is to see how concerned everyone is, Neville has a right to some privacy."

At some point in the past few months, she had taken on the habit of bossing people around whenever she felt nervous. Was this how Hermione felt whenever her two best friends ran out of stupid ideas and looked to her for the next steps? Probably. Hermione deserved a lot more credit than she got for her nerves. Being the one people relied on for bright ideas was a terrible responsibility. Especially when the responsibility came with broken friends who got medical attention in secret.

What to do, what to do?

At what point did someone become responsible for saying stop? Once Neville got better, should she demand that no one participate in this mini-revolution? That everyone stop everything? That they all become obedient students?

And would she ever dare look at Harry in the eyes again if she did such a thing?

No.

There was her answer. If Harry could shoulder his responsibility for so long, if Hermione could help him for so long, if Ron could stand by their sides no matter what, then Ginny could do this, or she would not call herself a girlfriend, a sister and a friend anymore.

Stupid Gryffindor nobility.

* * *

><p>Madam Pomfrey arrived with Jimmy and Ritchie. Swallowing visibly, she got to work on Neville, mending bones, checking for internal damage, giving out sleeping potion and painkillers. She operated in almost complete silence, broken only from time to time by raspy breathing from Neville himself.<p>

Ginny watched every step, wondering if she'd have to do this herself soon on Neville or on someone else.

As the nurse finished, she turned to the few students standing in the room.

"He's asleep for now. The bones have mended, but his body has been put under a lot of stress. He should not leave his bed for two or three days. I will let his teachers know that he is excused, though it might be best for him to try and attend Professors Carrow's classes. He will need help to walk to the classroom for these. Mr Finnnigan, I hope you can be counted on for this." She took a deep breath. "I was not here tonight, I did not help Mr. Longbottom. Any recovery he made was due only to his own physical force. Is that clear?"

They all nodded. Without a doubt, she'd been instructed not to help and had taken an amazing risk disobeying her orders. Like most adults in the Castle, though, Pomfrey had always considered her duty first to Hogwarts, then to the students, and only last to the Headmaster. Under Dumbledore, the three had always been the same. With the new Headmaster, they differed more often than not.

With a solemn nod, she left the room.

They remained silent for a few minutes, before Lavender spoke up.

"One of us should stay here tonight to help Seamus in case Neville wakes up. I really would like to stay, but Ginny... you have a lot more experience than me on this. I don't want to be a bad girlfriend, but I think it'd be best."

After such a difficult day, Ginny was relieved to have an excuse to stay in Harry's bed. Even if it didn't smell like him anymore, something of his essence remained – or maybe she needed comfort so badly that she'd convinced herself something was there even when there wasn't. Did it even matter?

"I'll stay here. Do you have the either of the Carrows tomorrow?"

"No, we're free."

"Great, he can sleep through the day then – but we should make sure he's never alone. Can you talk with the rest of the Gryffindors and figure out a schedule so there's always someone with him? Preferably boys, so we don't take unnecessary risks."

"I'll do that right now," Lavender answered, looking very happy to have something – anything – to do.

"Seamus, I guess we should clean up this dorm, and figure out if anything's missing. Did you have anything illegal stored in this room?"

"We don't have anything illegal stored _anywhere_, Gin. That's your job," Seamus answered with a sad smile, picking up some of Neville's clothes and shoving them in the closet. Ginny rolled her eyes, took the clothes back out and started folding them properly.

"Boys... Can't any of you ever fold clothes?"

Seamus let out a laugh – almost genuine this time.

"I didn't think you'd be the type of girl who cares about that. You'll have a bit of a problem if you ever marry Harry, he's the worst of our lot when it comes to folding and cleaning up after himself."

"I can handle Harry."

"Aye, you can. You and Hermione, you're probably the only two girls who ever will know how to handle Harry. I don't reckon anyone else will ever need to."

He tried to imitate her way of folding a shirt and failed miserably.

"Isn't there a spell for these things anyway?"

"There is, but I like to fold clothes by hand. It clears up my mind." She started putting togetehr a pile of robes.

"Do you think he'll be alright?" Seamus asked after a short silence.

"Yes. Otherwise Pomfrey would have taken him to the hospital wing, Carrows be damned."

Another short silence, then...

"Ginny?"

"Yes?"

"What do we do now?"

...

"I have no idea."


	10. Chapter 10

Pansy Parkinson was full of shite.

Her mother would probably find a way to wash her skull with soap if she heard her thoughts, but Ginny had stopped caring about the little infractions a long time ago. The most pressing matter was to shut Parkinson's ugly little pug face.

All the missions, besides protecting the younger students, had been called off. Nothing else than sheltering someone else from harm could justify the state Neville was in. Although, on second thoughts, making Parkinson disappear for a couple days might be worth the price... If that damn vanishing cabinet hadn't been destroyed, it would have been a great solution. In the meantime, however, they had to suffer her showing off.

"It's almost cute, isn't it, how Longbottom thought he could play Harry Potter. Do you think he has a special costume hidden in his closet somewhere?"

Biting her tongue, Ginny walked passed the girl who was talking unnecessarily loud. What was that spell Lupin used to annoy Peeves with? Langlock? Maybe it was easy enough to be nonverbal...

Neville had been in bed for three days now, still mostly incoherent, though he did seem like he was getting better. Seamus was weirdly quiet, Lavender even more weirdly silent, and Ginny was beyond pissed off. Slytherin House, in all its glory, seemed to think that Neville's punishment (the extent of which had been fodder for school gossip the last few days, despite Ginny's best efforts to keep it quiet) was their own private revenge for not getting any first years at all. They had been even more insufferable than usual, and Parkinson was without a doubt their leader in all this.

With an exasperated sigh, she sat down on her own at the Gryffindor table for lunch. Neville's injuries also meant she'd lost her favourite lunch mate. Seamus, Parvati and Lavender had taken to grabbing food from the tables and then eating in the common room, just to avoid blowing the three Death Eaters in the staff to pieces. Ginny thought it would be doing them too much of a favour to get out of their way, and made a point of showing up as much as possible. Most students, however, knew better than to associate themselves with her in public, which meant she'd gone from most popular girl in the school the previous year to the girl-that-ate-alone. She didn't mind much – everyone did what they could to stay safe, and befriending Harry Potter's ex-girlfriend publicly would be just dumb...

And dumb seemed to be exactly what Ernie and Rose were, as they sat down right next to her.

"So, what's the plan?" Ernie said without preamble, cutting to his point.

"What plan?"

"The plan to get back at the Slytherins. Don't tell me you haven't noticed Parkison is even more annoying than usual – which by the way I didn't think was even humanly possible, but there you are."

He started helping himself to roast beef and pumpkin juice, and looked expectantly at Ginny.

"There is no plan, we'll just have to let them be annoying."

The two Hufflepuffs gaped at her.

"What?" Rose exclaimed, clearly outraged.

"Listen, you two haven't seen the state Neville is in. Unless it's a matter of life and death, it's really not worth risking it. Slytherin House has been annoying since the days of the founders. Nothing we do will change that."

"I can't believe you're saying that!" Rose whispered furiously. "I saw them take Neville away, and I promised myself that no matter what happened, all his efforts wouldn't be in vain – and now _you_ are the one stopping everything?"

"Rose, you being there and Neville being taken away is exactly why I'm stopping everything. We can't have that happening again. One day, I'm sure we're all going to need to fight to take snake-face down, and we can't do that if they beat us half to death already."

"We can't fight if everyone has lost hope either," Ernie answered angrily. "Look, I'm not saying barge in wherever snake-face hides and take him down – that's more Harry's specialty – I'm saying stand up for what's right and not let anyone forget where our loyalties are!"

"And where are your loyalties, Ernie?"

"I'm loyal to Harry and to Cedric's memory. Whenever I don't know what to do, I ask myself what either of them would have done – and standing here while the snakes are making fun of Neville is not what they would do!"

How in the world did Harry always seem to know what to do in these situations? He always knew when to barge in and when to retreat – or did he? Wasn't his talent being great at improvisation in the end? Making things up as he went along?

"Well, I don't have a plan Ernie. Do you have one?" she snapped.

The smile on Ernie's face told her that this was what her wanted her to say all along.

"Oh yes. I do. But if you don't mind, I won't tell you. The less you know, the better. I think this is a mission for Hufflepuff house."

"What is this? Helga against Salazar?"

"Exactly," Rose piped in.

"You guys really think you can take on the snakes?"

"Oh yes," Ernie repeated. "Have you ever heard of Honey Badgers? They eat snakes for bloody breakfast. They're the single most ass-kicking member of the animal kingdom, but because they look so cute, no one ever suspects them."

"I think you're right: I _really_ don't want to know what the plan is. Whatever it is, do it if you think you can pull it off. If it's any good, I suspect I'll hear about it soon enough."

Ernie's smile grew even more, and as Heather made her way to the table, he swiftly switched the topic to Oliver Wood's promotion as main Keeper for Puddlemere United.

* * *

><p>That same evening, she reported her lunch conversation to the four seventh year Gryffindors. Neville was finally managing to stay awake for more than five minutes, and could hold conversations that actually made sense. Ginny hope that this fact, combined with Ernie's announced new mission, would keep Lavender from killing Pansy. Amazingly enough, it did.<p>

"I guess we could lie low like you said we should, Ginny, if Ernie's handling the revenge bit."

"I wouldn't have thought Ernie had it in him a year ago," Parvati mused, "but this year, quite a lot of guys are starting to surprise me. Anthony said that even Terry's on some mission of his own, but he wouldn't tell me what."

Ginny lied back on Harry's bed contently. These days, she lived for quiet evenings like these, just talking with friends, relaxing, almost as if the war wasn't happening.

"We can't lie low," Neville said quietly from his bed. Ginny turned to him, surprised.

"Neville, we don't really have a choice, you least of all of us. If they catch us stepping one toe out of line, we're dead. Literally."

"So let them kill us. I'm not going to lie low, Ginny, and you won't either. Stop playing hot and cold. A month ago you were ready to lead a rebellion, and now you're giving up? We're already out of line, just for being on Harry's side. We can't go back to playing nice happy students just because they roughed me up. We've got to step it up instead. I'll let the Hufflepuffs keep the visible rebellion going. We've got something bigger to do."

He stopped there to cough loudly, which made Ginny wince. What in the world was getting into him?

"In Snape's office, before they took me to the dungeon, I saw it. He was so obviously trying to hide it, that I'm sure it's super important. We've got to get it."

"Get what?" Parvati whispered, completely in awe of the new Neville.

"The sword of Gryffindor."

Lavender looked confused, Seamus surprised and Parvati unsure of herself. Ginny almost lost it.

"The sword of Gryffindor? It's in Snape's office? Out in the open?"

Neville clearly had expected her to try to talk him out of his crazy idea, not to question him.

"Yes, it's in a stand behind his desk, a sort of glass case, but I'm guessing..."

"Oh Merlin," Ginny interrupted. "Oh Godric, Merlin, everyone out there. It's right _here_?"

"Emm, yes?"

"We've got to get it. Like, now."

"Hold on a second," Seamus interjected. "What in the world is going on here?"

"What's the sword of Gryffindor?" Lavender asked.

"And why do we want it?" Parvati added.

"It's exactly what it sounds like: it's a sword that used to belong to Godric Gryffindor. It's been at Hogwarts for a long time, I think, and it's a really powerful thing. Harry once killed a basilisk with it."

"Wicked," Seamus said, his eyes shining with excitement.

"I'm not sure whose it is exactly, but in his will, Dumbledore chose to give it to Harry. He should have received it, but Scrimgeour, idiot that he was, decided that it was property of Hogwarts and didn't pass it on."

"So, Dumbledore thought this was an important enough object that Harry should have it, but he doesn't because Scrimgeour decided to play bureaucrat?" Neville asked.

"Basically, yes. So we need to get it, and then pass it to Harry. I have no idea what he needs it for, but I'm sure he would know, so..."

"For someone who thought we should lie low just five minutes ago, you seem quite ready to go off and break in to a top Death Eater's office," Parvati remarked.

"But don't you see? This is something that is completely worth risking our necks over! No matter what it can do, this is our way to directly help Harry! Who's with me?"

She smiled broadly when all four raised their hands immediately.

* * *

><p>"OK, we need a plan."<p>

Ginny had just spent ten minutes filling Luna in to their insane idea. The Gryffindors had decided together that she should be included in the mission from the start – after all, Luna often had more guts and courage than many Gryffindors. She also had a unique way of approaching problems which could only be an asset.

"There are three parts to the problem, really. First is breaking in the office, second is removing all the charms and curses that are probably protecting the sword, and third is to get the sword to Harry. You need different types of talents for these. In our small group, I'm the best at removing charms and curses, but to blast our way in and out, I'm not so good – you're much better at this actually, and also much better at duelling anyone who would be in our way. And then, to actually get the sword to Harry – whoever does that will have to leave Hogwarts for good, but that will put our families in danger, and that's a risk neither of us is willing to take, I think."

Ginny thought of the Burrow, standing quietly in the countryside, and how horrible it had been to have Death Eaters storming the place after the wedding. She shuddered. That wouldn't happen again if she could help it.

"We'll need to be very careful with this, Gin. You need to think of a plan to break in, and then a back up plan, then a plan to get out, and another back up plan for this. I need to work on my spell breaking – and we need to figure out how to get the sword out of the castle. If this is as important as you said it would be, nothing at all can be left to chance."

Luna walked to the spells section and selected five heavy books.

"We need to think of everything. I suggest you go look at the section on Hogwarts. A lot of the defences of the Headmaster's office are bound to the school, so you need to know everything there is."

Studying was the thing the furthest from her mind at that moment. She wanted to simply walk up to Snape, Bat-Bogey the hell out of him, and demand the sword.

Yeah, right, that would go down well.

Following Luna's advice, she walked to the section dedicated to the school, passing a table of Hufflepuffs talking in hushed voice. Ernie winked at her knowingly. She hadn't heard anything of revenge being taken on Slytherins until then, but she suspected it would start soon. It was probably for the best – operation Honey Badger would distract the Carrows and Snape from the fact that a much more important plan was being worked on.

The books on the shelve were all very dusty. Few students, besides those taking Advanced History of Magic, ever researched anything to do with the school they studied in. Her finger passed a familiar-looking spine. She took out "Hogwarts, a History." Sure enough, in the list of past borrowers, figured the neat handwriting of a _Hermione Granger_. Ginny smiled sadly. Why did everything have to remind her of those three?

Since the smartest witch she knew always swore on that very book, Ginny decided it would be a good place to start. She left Luna alone at the tale – if they were together too often, it would raise suspicions – and went to Madam Pince to check the book out, in order to read it quietly in the common room.

She dearly hoped a way to get the sword out of the castle would appear in there as well, otherwise all their efforts would have been for nothing.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: For those of you who have never heard of Honey Badger, I recommend to go on youtube and find the video titled "The Crazy Nastyass Honey Badger (original narration by Randall)". You'll understand why Ernie is excited...<strong>


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: This chapter is dedicated to _iheartweasleytwins_ who managed the feat of reviewing every single chapter of every single story I ever wrote in a week. I'm not very good at responding to reviews, but I do read and appreciate them all!**

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><p><strong>Chapter 11<strong>

"The Headmaster's office is the single best protected room in the castle. It didn't use to be this way – until two hundred years ago, it was considered that no one would dare touch on the Headmaster's person, and you only needed a special version of _Alohomora_ to open the door. All that changed in 1803, when Headmistress Anderson got pranked by three students, who managed to spray paint her entire office in red and yellow. She was a Slytherin and didn't quite appreciate it. She got several of the teachers to work on it for an entire summer. Now, the only way to get in the Headmaster's office is through the gargoyle, with the password, and if you're on the list."

"The list?"

"Yes, the list. The gargoyle somehow knows that a limited list of people is allowed in the office. All the teachers are on it, as well as the Head Boy and Girl and the Minister of Magic. After that, it's up to the Headmaster to decide who can come in with just so password and unaccompanied. That's how Harry was able to go there so often."

"So where does that leave us?"

"We need someone who is on the list to let us in. But here's the problem: from what I've found out, Snape has added more wards. One in particular registers for him who has been in and out – and so whoever helps us in there will be in even more danger than us, unless they have a decent reason for being his the office at the exact same moment one of the most priceless artefacts in the Wizarding world is stolen."

"So what you're saying is that we're screwed."

"Essentially."

Ginny looked at Neville, hoping beyond belief that he would be able to see a solution she'd missed. Going over all the volumes on Hogwarts history and spell protections, she had hit a wall. She was thankful to have overheard McGonagall talk about the register of visits to the office – that one wasn't mentioned anywhere, it was much too recent. If they had gone in the lion's den unprepared for it, she was rather sure someone would have disappeared. Not in a good way.

Neville was frowning, looking at the map she'd drawn, summing up the wards. The spell registering visits at the gargoyle was circled in red.

"Where are the visits actually registered?"

"There are at least two separate lists that write those down at the same time. One is in the Headmatser's office itself, the other Alecto's chambers. There could be more than I don't know about."

"I bet Snape loves that Carrow is watching his comings and goings."

"None of the Death Eaters trust each other. Their favourite past time besides torturing us is snitching on each other to their Dark Idiot-in-Chief. I'm sure he encourages it too."

Neville looked at the map once more.

"And you have no idea how to break that spell?"

"No, Snape made it himself. Luna looked at it, and she doesn't know either. She's by far the best of us at this."

Neville sighed.

"Well, there's only one solution then: the person who lets us in will have to leave the castle and go in hiding."

"What?" Ginny exclaimed.

"That actually works out quite well with the idea I had to get the sword out. We need someone to physically take it to Harry, and that person would also have to go underground. I was thinking of doing it. So either we find a way for me to appear on that list, or we find someone who is on it willing to go along with our plans."

"Neville, you are _mad_."

"Yes, I am. Are you with me?"

Ginny could feel her eyes glinting.

"Count me in."

* * *

><p>"Flitwick."<p>

"He'd never survive in hiding. That man can eat twice his body weight in a day, did you notice?" Ginny answered Neville's suggestion

"Is Flitwick even a man? I thought he was a weird cross-over between an elf and a goblin."

"Seamus, be quiet and focus. What about Sprout?" Parvati suggested.

"She'd never leave her students," Neville countered.

"McGonagall?" said Lavender.

"No, the Order needs someone on the inside of the castle," Ginny replied.

"Hagrid?" offered Seamus.

"No, I think Snape got annoyed at him and removed him from the list. Plus, how in the world could Hagrid survive underground?" Lavender asked.

"This is hopeless," finished Seamus. "Slughorn is too much of a coward to even consider it, we need Pomfrey to stay here to fix us every other day, and we can't trust any of the other teachers."

"What about Terry?" Parvati said.

"Terry Boot?"

"He's Head Boy. He's on the list."

"He's not really the type to take risks, Parv," Lavender answered.

"Don't underestimate him. Anthony says he's got more courage than it looks."

"Wouldn't we also have to protect his family?"

"He's an only child," Parvati answered. "And his parents are out of the country. They should be fine."

"How do you know all that?"

"He's Anthony's best friend. Unlike some people I know, I do more with my boyfriend than shove my tongue down his throat."

Neville and Lavender had the decency to blush. Ginny didn't pay much attention to the comment.

"How do we ask Terry? Could you do it Parvati?" she asked.

"How about Luna?" Seamus offered. "This might be better coming from a fellow Ravenclaw."

"That's a good point. Luna will ask. Seamus, can you pass on the request?"

"That's only if he can keep his tongue out of her mouth long enough," Lavender quipped.

"My tongue is staying in my mouth, thank you. We broke up at dinner."

"What?" Seamus answer took Ginny's attention away from the task at hand.

"She said she got enough kissing practice. Snogging was pretty much all we did anyway. We're still good friends. She's nice, Luna."

Seamus didn't appear too broken hearted, so Ginny decided that the matter was closed – though she'd make sure to re-open it with Luna the next day.

"Fine, this is all decided. Time for bed."

"Are you still sleeping in Harry's bed, Ginny?" Seamus asked. While Neville was recovering, she'd taken to staying with the boys – and kept the habit even after Neville felt better.

"I can't, I think Heather is becoming suspicious."

"Isn't she always?" Parvati said.

"Well, it can't hurt to use my own bed from time to time, can it? Good night boys!"

She followed Parvati and Lavender quietly back up the girls' stairs. They were excitedly discussing the implications of Seamus and Luna breaking up.

"I swear, Parv, that Hufflepuff in fourth year has a giant crush on Luna. He turned positively white when he saw Seamus snogging her. He'll make a move."

"Too shy. He barely talks to most girls as is, he won't even dare approach Luna."

Ginny tuned them out, going over the steps of operation Godric, as it'd been dubbed, in her head. She waved the girls good night as she reached her dormitory, opened the door and... found Heather looking under her bed.

"Oh. Ah. Uhm. Hi, Ginny!"

Ginny looked at the girl who had an extremely guilty look on her face, then at her things, through haphazardly on her bed, and finally at the letters from her family, opened on her desk, that had obviously just been read.

Furious didn't even begin to explain how she felt.

"Explain."

"Well, uhm, I ran out of ink, and the next Hogsmeade weekend is a bit far off, and my owl hasn't returned yet, so I can't ask my Mum, and where have you been anyway?"

"Liar. Why are you going through my stuff?"

"I told you, I ran out of ink and..."

"I see a pot full of ink just there on your desk Heather. Why you spying on me? How can you even think I wouldn't notice? Do you think I'm completely stupid?"

"Well, see, no, of course, I'm not..."

"You know what? Save it. You can tell whoever you've been spying for that I'm sleeping in the boys' dormitory – that's where I've been for days, and I'll just stay there from now on."

Ginny picked up the letters from the twins and Bill, took her pyjamas and a change of clothes for the next day, as well as her books, parchment and homework, and left.

She barged in the boys' room without knocking, sending Seamus, who'd been changing, running for under the covers of his bed. An annoying voice in the back of her mind informed her he had a very nice backside.

"Gentlemen, I'm moving in."

"Er... great?" Neville said, clearly confused.

"I cannot share a dorm any longer with that spying, conniving, snivelling little bitch!"

"Spying?"

"I came in the dorm and she was going through my stuff. Tried to come up with a lame excuse, something about ink – but honestly, does she think I'm _that_ dumd?"

"I'll take that as a rhetorical question," Seamus said, looking clearly worried by how angry his friend was.

"Could she have found anything on operation Godric?"

"No, I don't have anything written down on it that couldn't pass as homework."

"And your collection of torture remedies is hidden throughout the castle?"

"Yes."

"Is there anything else she could have fond that could get you in trouble?"

"A couple old Quibblers, maybe."

"But nothing bad?"

"No, Neville, nothing bad. Are _you_ also under the impression that I'm dumb?"

"Sorry, Gin, just had to make sure you're safe. So you're moving in here for good?"

"Until you two kick me out..."

"Fat chance. Welcome to the dorm, roomie!"

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><p>Living with the two boys had its advantages – being with two persons she liked and didn't worry were spying on her was very nice. But unfortunately, it still meant she was living with two <em>boys<em>. Growing up with six brothers, Ginny was used to mess and excessive amounts of belching and smelly socks – but it never was in _her_ room.

"Seamus, I swear, if I ever see your underwear ever again, I'll make sure it's permanently stuck to your privates!"

"Oh, loosen up a bit Gin. It's not that ba –ah – AH – fine I'll clean up, stop this now!" Seamus screamed, trying to vanish the tiny bat bogeys flying out of his nose. Neville was lying on his bed, laughing loud until Ginny turned her glare his way.

"Yes, Gin, I'll clean up too right now!"

Once the dorm was decently tidied up, Neville took out their check list again.

"The date – second week of November," he started. "We'll go at the first decent opportunity. The opportunity will be decided by..."

"...how pissed off the Carrows are at the Hufflepuffs that day," Ginny continued. "If they're watching the badgers, we can pass through more easily. I've already told Ernie to be sure to leave their mark on some stuff that week, without telling him the reason why."

"When we're ready, we pass the message to Luna and Terry by exploding yellow fireworks in the halls," Seamus added. "Hopefully, the badgers will get blamed for that one too. We meet outside the library, the four of us hide, Terry out in the open."

"Terry asks the gargoyle if the Headmaster is there. If Snape is in, Terry goes up and feeds him some kind of ridiculous story. If Snape isn't there, we go with Terry."

"Ginny and Luna work on removing all the wards around the office. We then have exactly fifteen minutes to locate the sword. If we don't find it, we back out. If we find it, Luna works on the curse-breaking and takes it out."

"Terry gets on a broom and flies out directly towards Hagrid's cabin. Someone from the Order will be there in hiding and take him out of Hogwarts. The Order will also contact his parents and suggest they go in hiding, and tell them terry is safe."

"We get the hell out Snape's office and go straight to bed."

"What are the chances any of this actually works out?" Seamus asked.

"Slim to none," Ginny answered without a smile. "I'll take these odds over doing nothing."

They'd been rehearsing their plan every night since they had finalised it. Luna and Terry were doing the same in their dorms every night; and so did Lavender and Parvati, even though they wouldn't play an active part in any of it.

Ginny still couldn't believe that Terry – shy, quiet Terry – had agreed to join their madness. She had tried to find a way around his participation, as he did not exactly strike her as someone who would handle fast action very well at all, but had had no such luck. Terry was their only way in.

After the three friends went to bed, Ginny's mind kept on working. Their chances of getting caught were humongous, and she found herself wondering what would happen to them when the inevitable took place. Would they be sent to wherever Death Eater headquarters were located? Were they even important enough for that? Would her family try to get her out? Would Harry try to get her out?

Ginny finally fell asleep to the sound of Neville snoring softly, picturing Harry flying in to save her like he did in the Chamber of Secrets, brandishing the sword of Gryffindor, and looking adorably confused as to how he even got there in the first place.


End file.
